Unwritten Peepin’ Rule Broken By Rugby Photographer
Stealing signals has long been a part of American sports. Whether a guy with binoculars is in centerfield looking in on the catcher, Bill Belichick videotaping signs from opposing defensive coordinators, or studious players lingering around the opponents huddle during a 20-second timeout, it may not be legal or ethical, but it’s in the game.
There’s a new kind of sign stealing coming out of Australia recently – this time from Getty photographers who need a few unwritten rules written down, apparently.
Getty photographer Scott Barbour used a long-range lens to take a picture of a handwritten playbook page highlighting attacking moves held by All Blacks coach Graham Henry during a training session. The picture, released several days before Saturday’s Tri-Nations game against Australia earned Barbour a ban from the tournament and opened a floodgate of discussion surrounding the unwritten rule among photographers not to capture and publish information that might give one team an advantage over the other.
The picture’s publication has whipped a flurry of bad press in Getty’s direction to be sure, including the New Zealand Rugby Union banning Barbour from future training sessions and anyone from Getty Images from attending training sessions for the remainder of the week. But still, even the All blacks coaching staff kept things in perspective.
Hansen said New Zealand team management would express its disappointment to Barbour—who works for Getty Images—that standard media protocols had been breached.
“It’s disappointing the photographer has broken the unwritten rule, but you can’t do much about it,” All Blacks coach Steve Hansen said. “We won’t have to change our tactics too much. There are a whole lot of things that are going to happen on Saturday night and I don’t think one photo is going to make too much difference.”
The NZRU couldn’t ban Getty or even Barbour from attending The Bledisloe match (which New Zealand won despite the leaked photo) since the match falls under Australia’s jurisdiction, but the All Blacks team manager Darren Shand confirmed Barbour was not welcome at team media opportunities and negotiations with Getty Images were continuing.
But why? Why bother? The All blacks would be foolish to ban Getty from attending future matches – how many pictures of your favorite team would disappear if Getty was suddenly blacklisted?
Oh your favorite team is the All Blacks? That’s weird.
Anyway, the guy has a spotless record up until this faux pas. Not only that, but if you’re going to ban Barbour for taking the picture, why not ban the countless Aussie media outlets that published the picture? Did they not do as much damage? More? And what damage was caused here, really? Do you not enjoy rhetorical questions?
The Aussie coach Robbie Deans had little say on the topic, yet provided a modest amount for perspective on the matter: “I understand it was a Kiwi photographer, so I do find that amusing.”
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Playbook photo courtesy of Yahoo! Sports via Getty Images
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