All Black suffers Twitter withdrawal

Self-confessed tweeting fanatic, All Blacks winger Cory Jane, said Monday he was suffering severe withdrawal pangs after the team management imposed a Twitter ban until the end of the Rugby World Cup.

Although he's stopped sending messages, Jane said he's constantly checking his account.

"I'm battling. I'm checking it like every 10 minutes just to see what people are writing and what's going on. It's starting to hurt but rules are rules," he said.

"The worst thing about it is when somebody writes something you just want to answer and let them know... but we're not allowed to."

Jane's tweeting has landed him in trouble with the All Blacks in the past, notably when he revealed in 2009 he had not been selected for a Test against England 24 hours before the team was officially released.

Coach Graham Henry admitted then he did not know what Twitter was and "thought it was a new guy playing five-eighth (fly-half) for England."

Jane said that while he struggled with the ban on responding to the many messages he received, he was not tempted to use a pseudonym because of the consequences of being caught.

"I'm not going to do that. I don't want to get kicked out first of all. I'll just abide by the rules and keep checking it every 10 minutes."

Meanwhile, the England team management have told their players they can tweet during the September 9-October 23 tournament as long as they don't reveal team selections, criticise the management or taunt the opposition.