France fearful of spying Springboks as Fabien Galthie takes drastic steps to avoid leaks
France head coach Fabien Galthie and an inset of South African Rugby fans
Fabien Galthie is fearful of South African espionage as France continues their preparations for the grudge match against the Springboks at the Stade de France on November 8.
The French squad gathered in Marcoussis, located just outside of Paris, on Monday as they began preparations for the clash against South Africa, as well as their other Autumn Nations Series internationals versus Fiji and Australia.
However, their training sessions have not been conducted as usual, with the French coaching staff wary of potential spies with the Junior Boks squad using the same facilities.
France wary of espionage
South Africa U20s head coach Kevin Foote has taken a squad of U19 academy talents on a three-game European tour to France and Ireland, which includes five members of the triumphant Junior Springbok side from earlier this year.
The squad departed South Africa on Wednesday and will face off against a French U19 Invitational XV on November 3, followed by a match against the French U19s on November 8, with the tour concluding with a clash against Ireland U19 on November 14.
Foote and his squad will make use of the same training grounds as Les Bleus, and Galthie is taking steps to ensure that none of the team’s tactics are leaked back to Rassie Erasmus and his Springboks coaching team via the youth squads.
France are renowned for hosting open training sessions in the build-up to their matches, but that has changed, with media and the public only allowed to view the first 15 minutes.
According to reports by Le Figaro and Le Parisien, the once public training sessions have been held behind closed doors instead.
The staff fear that the presence of the youth team could lead to sensitive information on the squad and their plays being leaked through the youth squad’s coaches.
This is not the first time that coaches have been wary of being spied on, with the Springboks famously preparing for their Rugby World Cup quarter-final against Les Bleus behind closed doors due to fears that they were being watched and recorded.
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Spying accusations
In the Chasing the Sun 2 documentary series, the Boks are shown covering up cameras in hotels and moving sessions indoors to avoid being watched.
Additionally, Springboks assistant coach Felix Jones decoded France’s ruck calls from publicly available YouTube videos.
Former British and Irish Lions boss Warren Gatland has also accused the Springboks of spying during the 2021 series.
“We also felt that during the tour we were spied on while we were based at the Arabella Country Estate near the coastal town of Hermanus, about a 90-minute drive from Cape Town. This is something that Gregor Townsend has spoken about publicly,” Gatland wrote in a Telegraph column.
“Our suspicions grew in the first Test, when Lukhanyo Am hit Elliot Daly with a massive man-and-ball tackle, reading a move that we had not used before during the tour matches.”
He added: “The first Test experience seemed to confirm our fears. We just didn’t know how they could have so much information on us. We started training indoors in a gym to negate the suspicion we had of being watched. But we still felt we were being filmed.”
Eddie Jones has also claimed to have had his sessions spied by the All Blacks on during his time with England.
In 2017, police arrested an All Blacks security guard for planting a listening device in the team’s Sydney hotel room the year prior.
