NSW Blues beef up security after State of Origin training footage leak
New South Wales coach Laurie Daley has pledged to review security procedures around State of Origin preparations after vision of the Blues' private session on Monday was leaked online.
Images of centre Stephen Crichton hobbling off with an injured quad muscle quickly spread on social media on Monday afternoon after the Blues' session at the home of Queensland rugby union at Ballymore.
Daley said the leak wasn't his focus one day before the series kick off, but the breach was regrettable.
'When it's a private session, you're always disappointed when stuff like that is leaked,' he said. 'We'll go through what we can do better, and we might stop people coming to training, we don't want to but it might be just part of what we need to do, just limit access.'
Although Wednesday's match is at Suncorp Stadium, the Blues are favourites to win Game 1 after winning the shield in Brisbane in last year's decider.
Captain Isaah Yeo played down the leak, and said there was nothing much to be gained by opponents watching private training sessions.
'If you look at all teams, and I think all teams play a pretty similar sort of style and I guess there's enough footage of players in this arena already from club land.'
Yeo played down the seriousness of Crichton's injury and described it as a 'cork' but admitted Monday's scare and the recovery of prop Payne Haas has meant preparations haven't always been smooth.
'It's never ideal, but feels like this week just throws up challenges, and [Crichton's] obviously got a little challenge he's got to overcome at the moment,' he said. 'Really confident [he will play], there were no scans or nothing needed, it was just an innocuous bump.'
A public announcement on Tuesday morning before the Blues' final training session at Suncorp Stadium reminded those present the session was private and requested workers vacate the stadium.
Crichton warmed up along with his teammates alongside Haas before the press were asked to leave the ground.
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Daley was confident Crichton would play, but the final decision will be made on Wednesday morning in consultation with the Blues' medical staff.
Souths centre Campbell Graham has filled in for Crichton in camp and will move into the starting side if the Bulldogs centre is forced to withdraw.
Daley said the situation would not distract the side from preparation.
'That's part of Origin, you've just got to accept it and roll with the punches,' he said. 'But you can't be put off at all, no matter what happens, and our preparation's been spot on.'
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