Stick: It’s not South African to be a cheater
The Springbok assistant coach was, rather inevitably, asked to weigh in on the spying allegations dominating the build-up to New Zealand and England's semifinal.
Mzwandile Stick (Backs Coach) of South Africa during the South African national rugby team media conference at Keio Plaza Hotel Tokyo on October 23, 2019 in Tokyo, Japan. (Photo by Steve Haag/Gallo Images)
There’s disappointing news for local rugby fans who also enjoy a bit of espionage action – the Springboks won’t be handing over envelopes stuffed with cash to sleuths or flying drones to record some opposition training moves.
Assistant coach Mwzwandile Stick gave that assurance on Wednesday after, rather inevitably, being asked to weigh in on allegations made by the English coaching staff that the All Blacks are spying on them, ahead of this weekend’s World Cup semifinals.
ALSO READ: Ex-NZ boss Mitchell hints All Blacks ‘spying’ on England
Following head coach Eddie Jones’ “revelation” on Tuesday, his defence guru, former All Black mentor John Mitchell, hinted that the world champions might be involved in the supposed sneaky activity after team security officials “spotted a suspicious red light” from an apartment overlooking the Roses’ training facility.
The Springboks might be wary of Wales having a few aces up their sleeve for Sunday’s battle in Yokohama, but they’ll rather rely on their own intelligence.
“I find it stupid to do it,” said Stick.
“You’re not only fooling yourself, or cheating the people around you. You’re cheating to the world.”
The former Blitzbok skipper also suggested it’s simply not South African culture to hatch such schemes.
“I don’t think we will ever do something like that. It’s not part of what we stand for as South Africans.”
South African rugby has indeed built a reputation of being “gentlemen” that play by the rules, but the Boks were rocked by spying allegations made by Australia during the Tri-Nations that preceded the 2003 World Cup.
Ironically, Jones was the Wallaby coach at that stage.
It was subsequently established that those accusations weren’t true, though the then coaching staff – headed by Rudolf Straeuli – did attempt to videotape the Aussies’ final practice, before the Boks’ video analyst, the late Dale McDermott, became too uncomfortable and left without obtaining any meaningful footage.
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