New Zealand sporting pundits on Tuesday accused French rugby officials of exploiting the late All Black great Jonah Lomu's young sons to promote their bid for the 2023 Rugby World Cup.
In a surprise move, the French team produced Lomu's two boys at a function in London on Monday featuring presentations from the rival bidders for the tournament.
Radio Sport NZ host Martin Devlin had concerns.
"If you have children and they've gone through the ages of seven and eight, you'll know what I'm talking about, those kids don't know what they're doing there," he said.
He added: "If you've got a seven and eight-year-old you're exploiting them is what you're doing."
Rugby commentator Andrew McKenna, from Britain's Talksport, also described the French presentation as "bizarre".
"You've got Sebastien Chabal and Jonah Lomu's kids, everyone's like 'What the hell's going off here?" he told Radio Sport.
"They explained it and said one of them was born in Marseille when Jonah was playing, but (it) all felt a little bit odd."
