The advertisement featuring Ashley Johnson in his Bok jersey.

The hosts of the 2015 Rugby World Cup say they didn’t forget to feature the All Blacks in an ad released yesterday encouraging people to buy tickets to the tournament.

In fact, current and former players were approached to do it, but declined the offer, an England Rugby 2015 official said.

Watch the video here

NZ Herald

This follows an earlier report this week where questions were asked about the omission of the New Zealand rugby jersey from the ad.

All their top tier nations are represented: England and Wales, who are hosting the event, former Bledisloe Cup holders Australia, fellow two-time winners South Africa, Scotland, Italy, Tonga and Samoa.

But there is no reference to the defending champion All Blacks.

The advertisement features Game of Thrones star and English actor Charles Dance revving up players, coaches, match officials and fans about the importance of not missing out on the tournament.

Tonga are the only side from New Zealand’s pool represented in the ad – with Argentina, who face the All Blacks in Napier this Saturday, also snubbed.

[youtube]https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=bl9ahNhH3Cc[/youtube]

However, many Kiwis noticed there was no reference to the All Blacks in the ad that includes England, Wales, Australia, South Africa, Scotland, Italy, France, Tonga, Samoa and Canada.

England Rugby spokeswoman Joanna Manning-Cooper said the team was represented, they were just a bit hard to spot.

“In the film, one parent of the little boy who squeezes between his parents’ legs is an All Black fan – you may need to look more closely than usual as the tournament brand guidelines meant we had to remove the AIG sponsor branding from the NZ shirts.”

Another shot in the film showed a player from the shoulders down dressed in black, though no silver fern logo was visible.

“We had to shoot the film in such a way that sponsor brands which appear on the shirts of any team which aren’t official RWC sponsors, aren’t visible,” Ms Manning-Cooper said. The All Blacks featured in print ads.

She said All Blacks who were approached to be in the ad weren’t available when it was shot at Twickenham last month.

Helen and John Chipper emailed in saying they thought it was appalling the last Rugby World Cup winners didn’t feature strongly in the ad.

And Simon Lattimer said: “Does it not surprise everyone? It’s called sour grapes, I suspect.”

Yesterday, a New Zealand Rugby spokesman said the perceived omission was not a concern and All Black assistant coach Ian Foster was not worried either: “I haven’t seen that, to be honest, but I’m pretty sure that we have qualified for the World Cup so we’ll probably be there.”