The All Blacks have come under fire for a tone deaf tweet to celebrate International Women's Day.
The famous team decided to mark the date by posting a message on Twitter featuring a number of male international players alongside women with the caption: "Forever grateful to all the women in our lives that allow us to play the game we love. Partners, mothers, daughters, doctors, physios, referees, administrators and fans. Appreciate you every day."
However, the fact that no female players were pictured or mentioned has been criticised, as well as the choice of the male players used.
In particular, the past actions of two of the players, Sevu Reece and Aaron Smith, have left many bewildered at how this tweet was ever sent.
Reece was fined NZ$750 (£390) and discharged without conviction for an assault on his girlfriend in 2018.
The Hamilton District Court heard evidence Reece had dragged his girlfriend to the ground during a drunken argument on a night out in the North Island city, causing her to suffer facial injuries and bruises to her knee and waist.
Playing provincial rugby for Waikato at the time, Reece was due to head to Europe to join Connacht but the Irish side cancelled his contract.
When that move fell apart, the Crusaders signed him - leading to his All Blacks call-up.
As for Smith, the scrum-half was caught having sex in a disabled toilet of an airport before a Test match - with the sex scandal, and the string of messages that were made public afterwards, leading the woman involved to claim that it was "clear that New Zealand has a serious problem with its rugby culture and misogynist attitude."
Unsurprisingly, the choice of players in the public message has been met with widespread criticism, with many demanding the tweet be removed.
"Well this is about as tone deaf as it gets," tweeted one user.
Another posted: "Hi All Blacks - out of interest, why is Reece in this ad, and were the Black Ferns busy the day of the shoot?"
The fact that no female players were referenced has also been slammed by social media users.
One user posted: "The Black Ferns have won 5 out of 8 Women’s Rugby World Cups, and are one of the greatest teams in women’s rugby history. That is what should be celebrated today."
"They really made International Women's Day about the men," lamented another.
While the argument could be made that this was tweeted from the page of the men's national team and not the women's side, the Black Ferns, and so they saw fit to only post pictures of male players, that's a flimsy argument given the reach of the All Blacks' Twitter account in comparison to the NZRU's other accounts.
While the Black Ferns have 15,600 followers on Twitter, the All Blacks boast around 1 million. Even the official account of New Zealand Rugby boasts only 13,000.
So, for many, the All Blacks account is likely the only New Zealand rugby account they would see - making the oversight of a female player or acknowledgement of the Black Ferns all the more surprising.
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