Tew on hotel bug: We should have
Brilliant Barrett back on the NZR books
New Zealand Rugby boss Steve Tew has admitted the listening device found in the All Blacks team room at their Sydney hotel before the first Bledisloe Cup test should have been handed to police earlier.
Instead of handing it to the New South Wales authorities immediately, the bug was given to the hotel and handed over to police five days after it was found, on the day of the test at ANZ Stadium a fortnight ago, and after Tew spoke about the matter to his Australian counterpart Bill Pulver.
Tew, in his post-board meeting media briefing yesterday, admitted lessons had been learned. An important integrity protocol of World Rugby states that any suspicious behaviour or activity be reported to the game’s governing body immediately, and in most cases the police.
“It did take five days,” Tew said. “We handed it immediately to the hotel, who initiated their own investigation because we were on their premises. There will be some things for us to learn from this process and probably the delay in giving it to the Beauden Barrett, the All Blacks firstfive in the form of his life, has recommitted with New Zealand Rugby, the Hurricanes and Taranaki until the end of 2019.
“I love playing for the All Blacks and representing my country in the black jersey and I’m loving my footy at the moment,” he said. “The All Blacks are an incredibly special team to be part of and I’m looking forward to playing my role and adding my small part to the legacy over the next few years, Barrett said. police is something we will reflect on and say we could have done better.
“There was nothing sinister about it, we simply relied on the hotel to get on and find out what was going on.”
A recent Herald story reported that the device, which had a limited battery life, was still running when it was found by the All Blacks’ security staff,
The 25-year-old 40-test All Black led the Hurricanes to their maiden Super Rugby championship this year, and while there was talk of moving to Auckland and linking with the Blues, that’s all it was in the end.
“Beauden has always been a key part of the club’s plans and this year we all saw how influential he can be when he’s playing somewhere near his potential,” Hurricanes chief executive Avan Lee said. “I think I speak for all of the Hurricanes fans in saying there are some exciting but Tew refused to confirm that or whether he thought it was aimed at the team.
“I’m not going to speculate on whether it was aimed at us or not. Someone much better qualified to do that work can come to those conclusions and we’ll take that advice.
“The very fact that we scanned a times ahead with a player of his calibre wearing the No 10 jersey.”
Hurricanes head coach Chris Boyd said: “We’re delighted that Beauden has decided to recommit to the Hurricanes. He’s been a big part of our success over the past two seasons and has developed into a real leader within the group, both on and off the field. We all saw the influence he had this season and his combination in the halves with TJ Perenara continues to go from strength to strength. It’s an exciting time for the club.” room for a bug would suggest we are suspicious that there is motivation from a variety of sources to try to glean information that gives people some advantage in something they are doing. Who that is is for you to speculate on. I think it’s an unfortunate confirmation of our suspicions but professional sport is a big business. You’ve got a lot of people very