Rugby: Bus becomes changing room for ABs

Richie McCaw, Kieran Read and co will have to become accustomed to changing on the bus. Photo / Getty

There will be no sightings of a shirtless Sonny Bill Williams after training at the Rugby World Cup - unless you have a seat on the team bus.

The All Blacks will become accustomed to changing among the cramped confines of their bus in the next six weeks, a compromise that enables sponsor AIG the maximum exposure permitted by tournament rules.

With advertising on team apparel banned at all World Cup venues excluding the practice field, the All Blacks are forbidden from arriving at their hotel with the American International Group logo still strapped across their chests.

Since changing clothes before boarding the bus would deny AIG precious time in front of the television cameras, the players will instead undress once behind tinted windows.

"The moment we leave our training venue, we go back into the Rugby World Cup bubble," New Zealand Rugby boss Steve Tew told Bloomberg. "So the boys will be getting changed on the bus, literally."

The makeshift dressing room is a necessary inconvenience to ensure AIG receives its money's worth from the $80 million deal signed with NZR in 2012, with both parties fortunate for even this allowance.

Jersey-front advertising was previously prohibited entirely at the World Cup, with the Wallabies blaming the restrictive rules when dumped by chief sponsor Vodafone following the 2003 tournament. But with this year's World Cup the first chance for AIG to enjoy exposure on a truly global scale, NZR was one of the driving forces behind loosening the advertising ban.

So while the AIG logo will be absent from the All Blacks' jersey when they kick off their campaign against Argentina on Monday morning (NZT), the partnership will pay dividends at practice. Steve Hansen's side were also able to attend sponsorship events for AIG before the tournament began, having arrived nine days early to enhance potential revenue streams and satisfy the insurance company's commercial imperative.

"Rugby is the fastest-growing team sport in the world," AIG head of global sponsorship Danny Glantz told Bloomberg. "It gives you that global scale. The key emerging markets like the US and Japan align very well with the AIG footprint."

The 43-day tournament will be the most-watched sporting event in 2015, with World Rugby boasting an estimated television audience of 772 million households, a market NZR was keen to exploit.

"We've got ambitions to sell more licensed products and be a better-known brand," Tew said.