US Edition
I am not surprised that concerns have been raised about spying ahead of the start of the Rugby World in France.
As a head coach you are always suspicious that your training sessions might be being secretly recorded, particularly when you are playing away from home.
We use drones to film our own sessions, but it is hard to be sure that there are no other drones monitoring from long distance. The technology in cameras now is such that you could probably be a couple of miles away and able to discreetly film training away from security.
I have been in situations when I have become aware that opposition teams appear to have information on our moves during games and it leaves you wondering how they knew what we were going to do.
But I would be surprised if any teams do try to spy on their rivals at this World Cup. The security presence around the team training bases is as heavy as I can remember. We have six security guards and there are police everywhere and I would imagine it would be pretty hard to spy on teams. There is also too much of a risk if you are caught.
I do know that spying has taken place in the past by certain teams, they tend to do it when they are at home, but I would be surprised if those teams would risk being caught.
I can put my hand on my heart and say that I don’t video opposition teams. I have received information on a Friday before a match but it can actually make your preparations worse.
You are left facing the decision whether or not to tell the players or call a meeting so close to the game. You have to assess what the disruption will be if you start talking about information you have been given. I presume the teams that do it will look to get their information at the start of the week, otherwise it is a distraction because it takes away from the players focusing on themselves, the team and our game plan and instead have more of a focus on the opposition.
We spend the week preparing our players to execute a game plan to the best of their ability and focus on our own strengths, not that of the opposition. You have to wonder about the focus and motivations of other teams who put time and effort into trying to get an edge through espionage.
What I do know is that the mood in our camp is excellent ahead of our opening game against Fiji in Bordeaux on Sunday. We have trained exceptionally hard during the summer to get ourselves in good shape.
The heatwave has been challenging but the players tell me it is not as hot as our heat camp in Turkey.
In an ideal world I would be fine-tuning the squad after a four-year cycle but like England and Australia, we have had to make an assessment on what strategy would be right for the squad given the enormity of the short-term task and with a view to the future.
Eddie Jones looks to have made his sweeping changes already, Steve Borthwick has stuck by his old guard for one last campaign. I am probably somewhere in between the two.
I used the Six Nations to see just where we were in terms of the older players and what was coming through. We have kept some experience but injected the squad with young players who will also benefit in the long term.
England probably didn’t have that opportunity because they named their World Cup squad so early. After the Fiji game there might have been more changes.
There is no doubt Steve is relying on the experience of his squad and that is understandable because I have been through it.
But depending on how England go, Steve will no doubt have decisions to make after the tournament about the direction he wants to go with a view to bringing in new players for the 2027 World Cup.
We are also going to be in transition after the tournament. We have probably got half a dozen players who won’t be around for the next World Cup so there will be changes going forward. We are the smallest tier one nation in terms of numbers and there have been some issues within Wales rugby in the last year or two but I see that as a positive to have a reset on a number of things and doing things differently and then it is about building on that.
I know spying takes place in rugby – it happened to me
I can put my hand on my heart and say that I don’t video opposition teams