A huge pork pie was sent to the New Zealand rugby team by pork pie manufacturer Pork Farms after it emerged the team loved the British classic.

Sent to the team before their narrow 20-18 victory over South Africa, the pie was tripled layered with traditional pork meat, mustard-marinated chicken and honey-roasted ham and filled with a honey-flavoured jelly.

Baked in a vintage Victorian oval tin to look like a rugby ball, the pie was then crowned with the All Blacks’ silver fern emblem and delivered to the team’s hotel base near Twickenham in a special box lined with artificial grass to resemble a rugby field.

Pork Farms became aware of the Kiwi’s zest for pie after All Blacks team spokesman Joe Locke was reported in The Mirror as saying how much the team had been enjoying classic English food, citing pork pies as a prime example.

Kim Burgess, head of markets for Pork Farms’ parent company the Addo Food Group, said: “Who wouldn’t be a fan of one of Britain’s best products – the pork pie?

“We are delighted that the All Blacks love them as much as we do, so we had to send them Britain’s favourite pork pie from Pork Farms.”