World Rugby is "taking seriously the discovery of a listening device in the All Blacks' hotel in Sydney," according to Patrick McKendry of the NEW ZEALAND HERALD. A spokesperson for the sport's governing body said that he could not speculate "on the particulars of the case," now being investigated by the NSW police after the bug was found hidden in a chair in a team meeting room at the InterContinental Hotel last week. The spokesperson added, "We take all allegations of compromised sporting integrity seriously and have in place robust regulations and programs, including those that operate at our own events." One theory is that a betting syndicate "is behind the planting of the device -- any classified information can provide advantages for those betting on matches," and World Rugby is "particularly strict" on match fixing, and "spot fixing," whereby specific elements of the game are manipulated to provide "a certain result." A spokesperson from the New South Wales Police media team said that police "were still investigating and had no update." Auckland University of Technology associate professor of sports management Geoff Dickson said that the planting of the device "is more likely to be the work of a gambling syndicate than anybody involved with the Australian Rugby Union or the Wallabies." He added that betting syndicates "have large amounts of money at their disposal for such covert operations." Dickson said that their motivation "would be the information gained which would assist with setting odds for a match outcome." All Blacks selector Grant Fox pointed out the All Blacks "were not accusing anybody of planting the listening device." Fox: "All we've said is we found a listening device in one of our rooms. We're not accusing anybody of putting it there" (NZ HERALD, 8/22).
