I know South Africa spied on us during last Lions tour

Telegraph

6 hours ago

The Lions can expect the mind games from Australia to ramp up over the next two weeks before the first Test in Brisbane but I just hope that the tour is played in a better spirit than we faced in South Africa four years ago.
The incidents with Rassie Erasmus, the Springboks head coach, have been well-documented, including his video critique of the match officials in our first Test victory in Cape Town.
But we also felt that during the tour we were spied on while we were based at the Arabella Country Estate near the coastal town of Hermanus, about a 90-minute drive from Cape Town. This is something that Gregor Townsend has spoken about publicly.
The Covid restrictions meant we had to stay there during the three Tests, which were moved to Cape Town to reduce the risk of infection.
We trained at the nearby Hermanus High School and although we had security guards checking out the potential sites where cameras could be placed, there was only so much they could do.
Our suspicions grew in the first Test, when Lukhanyo Am hit Elliot Daly with a massive man-and-ball tackle, reading a move that we had not used before during the tour matches.
Because there were no supporters in the stadium, we could hear what was being said in the Springboks' coaches box. We could hear the messages being relayed to their physio on the pitch about the moves that they thought we were doing.
Rassie was also on the pitch acting as a 'water boy,' carrying a piece of paper. One of the photographers got a picture of him holding the page standing beside Faf de Klerk, their scrum-half, and after the game, we enlarged the photo which showed that there were some of our moves and calls on it.
The first Test experience seemed to confirm our fears. We just didn't know how they could have so much information on us. We started training indoors in a gym to negate the suspicion we had of being watched. But we still felt we were being filmed.
Our concern was that they were using a long-range lens to video us from somewhere nearby.
Later on, well after the tour had finished, I talked to someone who is well-connected in South Africa, who told me that a house that overlooked our training pitch had been rented for the duration of the series and that a long-lens camera had been placed in the top corner of the house to record us.
It was so frustrating because you go on tour with plans to use different moves and options, but if the opposition knows what they are, they can plan to defend them. I am not sure in other sports like football it would have the same impact. I think there is a lot of it going on in the game at the minute.
As if the tour did not throw up enough challenges. We had first been based in Johannesburg and at the time there was rioting going on in the city and in Durban. We were based in a hotel on our own and being tested for Covid every day. The hardest thing was to insist that all the hotel staff should stay in the hotel because they were all becoming infected and then we had an outbreak which meant that our attack coach Gregor Townsend and nine players had to be isolated.
Most bizarre moment I have been involved in
The toughest moment came when we were due to play against the Sharks at Ellis Park. Because of the outbreak, we had not been able to name the team before we departed for the stadium.
The forwards were on one bus and the backs were on another bus. I was on the bus with the forwards and named who would play that night and, as Gregor was isolating, I had to text our head physio Prav Mathema and tell him which backs would be playing. It was that chaotic. It was the most bizarre moment I have been involved in in international rugby.
In fairness to the boys, they were fantastic in coping with all the adversity but at the time people were questioning whether the tour should be taking place at all. On reflection they were right, it should have been postponed by 12 months.
At one stage on a Zoom call with Rassie and the respective chief executives, Rassie wanted to get the game against the Stormers cancelled and play another game against South Africa A, and he made a threat that if we didn't agree to the change that his players were going to walk out because they were not prepared for the Test series. South Africa had only had one game against Georgia at the start of our tour.
It was not the greatest conversation to be having when we were trying to prepare for games. I knew it was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for the Stormers players to play against the Lions and I did not think it was fair to take it away from them.
To me the Lions tour is completely different to any other rugby tour. It is not about world rankings or qualifying for tournaments. Perhaps I am naive but I have a romantic view of the Lions. It is a celebration of rugby, a chance to grow the game globally and create interest in both the host country and back in the northern hemisphere. Traditionally the Lions tour brings new fans into rugby and gets them excited about the game. The most important factor to me on a Lions tour is both the travelling and home supporters and the atmosphere they bring to the matches. That is what excites me.
I know that winning is important but I think the amount of community engagement on tours by the Lions players should be acknowledged. On days off the players visit schools and hospitals and attend several events to engage with the host country population.
Unfortunately, the last two tours to South Africa and New Zealand were tarnished by off-field controversy and that was disappointing. I really hope Australia is a different experience for this squad. We want this tour to be positive and great stories emerge from it. It is a chance to create superstars and legends of the game and get kids excited. To me that is what Lions tours should be about.