Rugby world shocked after New Zealand alleges meeting room was bugged ahead of game vs. Australia

The Bledisloe Cup is one of the biggest contests in sports you’ve likely never heard about. Every year Australia’s Wallabies and the New Zealand All Blacks meet in a three-game rugby series that serves as a showcase of two of the best teams on the planet. This year, Game 1 was tarnished by one of the most bizarre stories in sports: allegations that Australia bugged New Zealand’s hotel to gain an edge.

News broke on Saturday morning when the New Zealand Herald released a report alleging a listening device was found in a chair in the meeting room of the hotel the All Blacks were staying.

“Foam of the seat appeared to have been deliberately and carefully cut to make way for the surveillance device and then sewn or glued back together to be almost undetectable.”

News of the bug traveled quickly around the world, becoming a headline not only in Australia and New Zealand, but around the world. NZ Rugby chief executive Steve Tew said:

“There was an All Blacks team meeting there earlier in the week. If the device was working properly, and we don’t know that for sure, then they would have overhead that.”

Australian Rugby Union has denied any involvement, and questions are being raised why the New Zealand team chose to hold on to the information for six days after finding the device and only reporting it to police on game day. Doing so not only caused a controversy ahead of the biggest game of the year, but hampered a police investigation. The local police superintendent explained that the timing of the report will make things more difficult, “[A]ny delay in any investigation’s always tough but we’ll look at that information”.

Ultimately Australia was decimated in the Bledisloe Cup’s opening game, losing to New Zealand 42-8. The investigation into the listening device, and the fallout from New Zealand’s delay will take some time to settle.