Sonny Bill Williams expressed his anger after Instagram took down a picture he had posted on the site of himself and teammate Ofa Tuungafasi praying before a World Cup match.
The players, who are both Muslim, had a picture with their heads bowed and palms up ahead of the All Blacks' win over South Africa deleted by the social media site.
A spokesperson for the website told the Daily Mail the image was "removed due to IP (intellectual property) infringement," but that did not appear to appease Williams.
He posted again on Instagram with the same picture along with the deletion message from the website and said: "Hello Instagram & to all that reported this photo. I'm wondering why this was removed from mine and @TuungafasiO pages? Surely a simple picture of someone expressing their gratitude for what they've been blessed with is ok?"
Fans reacted with anger on social media to the decision to take down the picture. One said: "This makes absolutely no sense. There isn't anything wrong in the picture," while another added: "Nothing wrong with this beautiful photo... shame on Instagram for removing it! Maybe we all should post it to support SBW."
Williams converted to Islam in 2009 while he was playing for French side Toulon, and became the first Muslim in history to play for the All Blacks. He performed an Umrah pilgrimage to Mecca and Medina in 2018 and was a prominent supporter of the Muslim community after the Christchurch terror attacks in March.
New Zealand are among the favourites to win the World Cup, which is taking place in Japan, and they comfortably won their first game by beating South Africa 23-13 in Yokahoma.
Their next match is against Canada next Wednesday before they finish the group stage with games against Namibia and Italy.
