Kings caught peeping?
Allegations of spying have surfaced and surrounded the Southern Kings leading up to their opening Super Rugby match against the Force this weekend.
Force scrumhalf Alby Mathewson tweeted about the incident when he said: "Good team training this morning. Had a school watching plus one #Spygate".
This has been backed up by reports on Arenasports website that mention a person fleeing the bushes at the Force's training session with a video equipment and a tripod. The man, apparently, fled over a road and disappeared through a service station.
The Southern Kings released a statement and director of rugby Alan Solomons mentioned: “I want to make it clear that it is not our policy to spy on our opposition.”
Solomons said the Southern Kings had received a request from the Western Force management team requesting a change in venue, and were doing everything in their power to accommodate them.
“We have asked our Vodacom Cup squad to move their training session earlier on Thursday, and will be making our own training fields at the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium available to them,” he said.
Solomons said the Kings would also be making provision from a security perspective, to ensure that the Western Force training sessions were kept private.
“We would also like to remind the general public that these training sessions are in fact closed sessions, and, while we understand that there is a lot of excitement at having international super rugby teams here for the first time, we would like to encourage the public to respect the Western Force’s privacy at this time,” he said.
Here is the actual tweet from Mathewson:
Good team training this morning. Had a school watching plus one #Spygate
— Alby Mathewson(@AlbyMathewson) February 19, 2013