Qantas crew don All Blacks jerseys after their

Rugby World Cup defeat

A bet is a bet and Qantas are "officially" wearing black! 

The New Zealand All Blacks home jersey

The Aussie airline Qantas are making their crew members wear the revered All Blacks jerseys after losing a bet. Staff - including two pilots - on a flight from Sydney to Auckland on Monday afternoon (November 2) all sported the All Blacks gear following the Australian rugby team, the Wallabies, loss to New Zealand’s All Blacks on Saturday (October 31).

All Blacks celebrate after winning the 2011 Rugby World Cup

The Kiwis became the first team to defend the Rugby World Cup on Saturday, defeating the Wallabies 34-17.

The All Blacks always perform a haka – a native warrior dance – prior to the start of each rugby match

The wager was inspired by some social media sparring - an earlier suggestion was for the losing airline to repaint its fleet in opposition colours. Qantas planes usually fly in a white-and-red colour scheme, while Air New Zealand usually fly white aircraft with a black tail.

Qantas A380 taking off

Air New Zealand started the Twitter exchange on Friday (October 30) by tweeting a digitally altered photo of a Qantas plane painted completely black, with slogans including "Team All Blacks", "bound in black" and "simply the best". Qantas responded with their own image of an Air New Zealand plane in bright Australian gold, saying they "think it needs a golden touch".

A departing Air New Zealand Boeing 747-400

The exchange was well-received by rugby fans and Twitter followers, prompting a more realistic proposition with Air New Zealand suggesting,

"How about this? On Monday in the air, your crew wear our jerseys."

The Australian Wallabies, the national rugby team

Air New Zealand thanked Qantas on Monday for being "good sports".

(All images - credit: Wikimedia Commons under Creative Commons licence)