Braced for fakes, frauds and terror | Rotorua News | Local News in Rotorua

There are going to be counterfeit products being imported ... That's just a normal part of it. Martin Snedden, chief executive of Rugby New Zealand 2011Knock-off products, fake tickets and terrorism threats - New Zealand's Rugby World Cup in 2011 is gearing up to deal with them all.

"There are going to be counterfeit products being imported and created and trying to be sold the whole way through. That's just a normal part of it," Martin Snedden, chief executive of Rugby New Zealand 2011, told the Daily Post.

The commercial rights for the tournament are owned by the International Rugby Board and that organisation has a team whose job is to look out for those things and do something about them.

Counterfeit tickets are a different story - very much in Mr Snedden's area of concern. "That's very much our responsibility. We're just trying to work our way through the best way of eliminating that. These types of things happen at stadiums [and big events] all the time."

With the financial success of the tournament governed by ticket sales, expect the latest technology to be used next year to try to prevent losses through counterfeiting.

Mr Snedden said a recent media sting involving Sunday Star Times reporters taking dummy explosives into match venues during Super 14 games, was "a bit of a stunt" but had provided some food for thought.

"What we've read in there, we've just fed into the process we've got going on," he said.

"There's a huge security planning happening which involves us, the IRB and a huge range of government agencies and the police. We will also incorporate private security into that as it gets closer.

"You can't take anything like [security] lightly but, having said that, we don't want to strangle the tournament either," Mr Snedden said.

"You don't know what the balance is until you get to the tournament because there's no point in assessing the risk now - it's actually what the risk is at the time it's happening ... so quite rightly, the rugby unions aren't [now] searching people as they go into Super 14 matches.

"Whether we do or not will depend on what we think the security risk is. We don't want to [search people], to be honest, but that will just have to be a call by the experts at the time."

Mr Snedden said recent incidents such as fake bombs, easy access to players and issues at Albany Stadium had helped.

"They just emphasise how organised we're going to have to be."