England centre Manu Tuilagi has been fined US$7500 by Rugby World Cup officials for wearing a sponsored mouthguard, just a week after his elder brother Alesana was sanctioned for the same offence while playing for Samoa.
It's led to speculation that it was an intentional sponsorship breach but the British company OPRO who supplies the mouthguards has denied its been involved in guerrilla marketing.
The company's Managing Director, Dr Anthony Lovat, says it has in no way encouraged any player to wear its branded mouthguards during any matches and would never be involved in ambush marketing.
He says in addition to offering to pay the players' fines, OPRO will now supply any player in the 2011 tournament with an unbranded replacement mouthguard.
