Durban - In the latest episode of the soap opera that is Lions rugby, one of the coaching staff has been accused of spying on one of his colleagues.
According to Rapport newspaper, forwards coach Albert van den Berg has accused the technical analyst, Chris Venter, of photographing private WhatsApp conversations from Van den Berg’s laptop.
It is Venter’s job to prepare the coaching staff’s laptops before games and former Springbok lock Van den Berg believes Venter has abused this by taking pictures of a conversation he had with agent Dane Galley.
It seems nobody trusts anybody at the Lions after a season in which they have lurched from one off-field drama to the next.
There is an as yet unidentified leak in the Lions camp and the rugby world has been amused by juicy tidbits such as a female member of staff brazenly walking into the change rooms when the players are naked, or the players reduced to eating hotdogs overseas and doing their own laundry.
Apparently, this latest spy drama has been reported to chief executive Rudolf Straeuli for investigation.
The strange but welcome thing is that despite this troubling backdrop, the players have turned matters around on the field.
They played superbly to beat Racing 92 to make the Challenge Cup quarter-finals and on Saturday night they did the best of the South African teams in action over the weekend by losing 31-21 to Glasgow, a respectable score-line considering the blowouts involving the Sharks, Stormers and Bulls.
IOL Sport