In a scathing column written by former British & Irish Lions coach Warren Gatland in The Telegraph this week, he openly – although without any real evidence – accuses Rassie Erasmus and the Springboks of spying on the Lions back in 2021.
The Springboks secured a hard-fought 2-1 series win during that tour which was filled with controversies and challenges, and Gatland has now thrown another bombshell into the mix.
Gatland suggested Erasmus was spotted with details of the team’s tactics, and that he was told the Lions were being filmed from a house overlooking our training pitch.
“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,” Gatland wrote.
“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 scrumhalf, and after the game, we enlarged the photo which showed that there were some of our moves and calls on it.”
Rassie Erasmus has not taking the allegations lightly
Taking to social media, Erasmus laughed off that example of the tackle by highlighting how it was a simple move with one skip pass that Am would have had no trouble reading without any inside knowledge.
Rassie Erasmus also made two more sarcastic posts, jokingly suggesting that they could have also been subjected to ‘spying’ when they had to be evacuated from their hotel prior to a Test match in Wales due to a fire alarm.
What else did Gatland claim?
The former Lions coach went on to suggest that the famed touring team had been filmed and photographed from a covert location.
“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.”
What do you think of this shocking allegation?
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