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All Blacks rugby union team manager Darren Shand has told a Sydney court he was "shocked" when a listening device was discovered at the team's hotel in Sydney last year.
Adrian Gard, who was a security guard for the All Blacks for 10 years, has pleaded not guilty to a charge of public mischief after a bug was discovered in a chair in the team's meeting room at the Intercontinental in Double Bay, before the opening Bledisloe Cup match.
Police alleged he made a false claim by reporting the bug had been found.
A hearing set down for two days has begun at the Downing Centre Local Court and the prosecution said it planned to call approximately 15 witnesses.
Mr Shand, who gave evidence from New Zealand via video link, said he was called to Gard's hotel room on Monday, August 15, 2016, where two chairs were produced, one with a battery and some wires hanging out.
"I was staring at it in shock, when I realised it was some sort of listening device," he told the court.
The chair was from the team's meeting room in the hotel's ballroom.
The court was told the All Blacks had requested Gard find a company to conduct a sweep as they were in a new hotel.
The sweep was to be carried out at North Sydney Oval where the team was training, as well as several rooms used by the team at the hotel.
"Gard usually uses his own equipment, but we wanted to use a different company," Mr Shand said.
"I felt on balance if we were going to do the job we'd need to do it thoroughly and properly."
Mr Shand said once the device was discovered, he notified the hotel's general manager who launched an internal investigation.
It was not until game day, August 20, that the All Blacks and NZ Rugby told the hotel to involve the police.
Topics: courts-and-trials, rugby-union, law-crime-and-justice, sport, sydney-2000, nsw