Mu'umu'u Rugby

You bitch!

Australia has upset near-neighbour New Zealand with television advertisements depicting some of its rugged rugby players carrying women's handbags.

They show All Blacks players, including former captain Tana Umaga, performing the haka, a traditional indigenous Maori war dance performed by New Zealand teams before every test match. But the television station has placed large, digitally enhanced handbags over their shoulders.

In a bizarre off-field incident in May, Umaga broke up a fight between team mate Chris Masoe and an unidentified man in a nightclub by hitting the burly Masoe over the head with a woman's handbag he picked up off a table.

The incident reduced a tired and emotional Masoe, who weighs in at a hefty 106 kg (233 lb), to tears.

At least he didn't hit him in the scrum.