Cape Town - He’s the one that got away, but it seems suspicion is mounting in the Western Force camp that a spy intent on aiding new Super Rugby franchise the Kings filmed some of their training on Tuesday.

The new South African sports website www.arenasport.co.za has reported that the Force squad, who are due to play the newcomers in Port Elizabeth on Saturday (19:10 kick-off), were training at Victoria Park when players retrieving balls for the kickers noticed a “suspicious character” in nearby bushes.

He reportedly took off when spotted, carrying video equipment and a tripod, as players set off after him.

The man crossed a road and darted through a service station, eventually evading the chasing pack.

Force scrumhalf Alby Mathewson (@AlbyMathewson) referred briefly to the incident afterwards on Twitter: “Good team training this morning. Had a school watching, plus one. #Spygate.”

The website had not managed to get a reaction from the Kings at the time of writing.

Teams:

Kings:

15 SP Marais, 14 Sergeal Petersen, 13 Ronnie Cooke, 12 Andries Strauss, 11 Marcello Sampson, 10 Demetri Catrakilis, 9 Shaun Venter, 8 Luke Watson (captain), 7 Wimpie van der Walt, 5 Steven Sykes, 4 David Bulbring, 6 Cornell du Preez, 3 Kevin Buys, 2 Bandise Maku, 1 Schalk Ferreira.

Substitutes: 16 Edgar Marutlulle, 17 Jaco Engels, 18 Daniel Adongo, 19 Jacques Engelbrecht , 20 Johan Herbst, 21 George Whitehead, 22 Hadleigh Parkes.

Force:

TBA

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