What happened to home and away strips?
Roar Pro By Nathan, 22 May 2010 Nathan is a Roar Pro
- Tagged:
- Crusaders, rugby jumpers, Rugby Union, Waratahs
Call me old fashioned, and I appreciate everyone will have mixed views on this, and some probably won’t even care too much, but what’s with the state of the rugby jumpers these days?
Why do some teams have an alternate strip when they play away from home and others do not?
I’m confused.
I have noticed this trend in league, too, where teams will wear many different jumpers in the same season, regardless if they are playing home or away.
They used to change jumpers less frequently and it was a big deal when they did.
Now it almost happens from week to week. It’s interesting seeing the fans supporting their teams in a range of different jumpers obviously bought from different eras.
Sometimes they are an almost unrecognisable supporter because their team’s jumper has changed that much over the years. Like rings on a sawn-in-half tree, you can observe when the fans started supporting their teams by the jumper they are wearing.
Please don’t tell me it’s about a clash of colours, because the Warratahs travelled to New Zealand recently and weren’t required to wear an alternate strip, when the Crusaders wore the ordinary looking grey outfits on their recent sojourn even though their traditional colours wouldn’t have clashed.
I thought the idea was for all teams to have a home and an away strip? Is this correct or has it changed?
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- Explore:
- Crusaders, rugby jumpers, Rugby Union, Waratahs
May 22nd 2010 @ 12:40am
rugbyfuture said | May 22nd 2010 @ 12:40am | Report comment
they all have home and away strips and the waratahs jerseys the other day were for a charity (loud shirt day)
thats the super 14
in europe they have home and away strips for their respective competitions, then have home and away strips for the heinekin cup
so thats that problem solved
May 24th 2010 @ 9:53am
Harve15 said | May 24th 2010 @ 9:53am | Report comment
Glad i found out now why the Waratahs wore that disgracful jersey. Glad it was for a good cause.
May 22nd 2010 @ 7:07am
JiMMM said | May 22nd 2010 @ 7:07am | Report comment
I don’t think clubs even need home and away jerseys, just normal and clash jerseys.
It would keep life simple, and it at least would be easy to figure out who is playing at any one time.
May 22nd 2010 @ 7:16am
Red Rooster said | May 22nd 2010 @ 7:16am | Report comment
They only wear clash jerseys if it is not going to be clear on TV who is who. Home and away is not relevant in Super Rugby only the visiting team is the one that has to change to its alternate. In Europe its the same and most teams have as many as three different options
May 23rd 2010 @ 11:30am
Nathan said | May 23rd 2010 @ 11:30am | Report comment
Agree, traditional jumpers for home games and an alternate strip for away games if they clash. This would simplify the whole process.
May 22nd 2010 @ 8:03am
Mark Young said | May 22nd 2010 @ 8:03am | Report comment
This is a very good point you have made here mate!
In the NFL, whose professionalism and presentation every league anywhere in the world should be working to emulate…
Every team has a coloured jersey and a predominantly white one.
When they play at home, coloured jersey, away – white one.
It is in the interest of the clubs to have a number of jerseys but the leagues need to look after the fans and make sure that things look good for the spectators paying to watch the games.
May 22nd 2010 @ 8:22am
sheek said | May 22nd 2010 @ 8:22am | Report comment
Notice also the subtle, & sometimes not at all subtle changes each year, to the playing strip, so that you have to keep up with the times.
All for the sake of the merchandising dollar, or euro, or whatever……….
May 22nd 2010 @ 8:29am
sheek said | May 22nd 2010 @ 8:29am | Report comment
This is where administrators should step in, but that’s unlikely since they’re after their cut as well.
But as Mark Young mentioned above with the NFL, there should be clear protocols regarding the playing strip – amount of writing available to sponsors & where located; clear delineation between home & away strips, etc.
Why we need to go crazy chasing the almighty dollar & turning things upside down, is beyond my comprehension.
May 22nd 2010 @ 8:47am
BigAl said | May 22nd 2010 @ 8:47am | Report comment
.
Good Old Collingwood Forever . . . wear the same strip !
Year in, year out, home, away, under lights… – and it makes fans and administrators of every other club furious !!!
May 22nd 2010 @ 11:44am
Brett McKay said | May 22nd 2010 @ 11:44am | Report comment
well actually Al, Collingwood has two strips: a predominantly black strip, like they wore last night, and they also have a predominantly white clash strip…
Check out http://www.footyjumpers.com, and go the club sections, all home/away/heritage/promo strips are shown (one of those “way too much time on their hands” websites..)
May 22nd 2010 @ 12:56pm
Chris said | May 22nd 2010 @ 12:56pm | Report comment
Bloody hell that is a beautiful website! Wish there was an RL version.
May 22nd 2010 @ 4:08pm
BigAl said | May 22nd 2010 @ 4:08pm | Report comment
Ah yes ! – very good Brett. Looks like they have obeyed the letter of an AFL law to have a home & away strip.
Though I would think the fans would need to have the observational skills of an Entomologist to detect the difference.
Black stripes on white V White stripes on black – hilarious !
May 22nd 2010 @ 5:28pm
Brett McKay said | May 22nd 2010 @ 5:28pm | Report comment
only Eddie could get away with it…
May 22nd 2010 @ 9:00am
sheek said | May 22nd 2010 @ 9:00am | Report comment
In an ideal world, teams should only change strips when they might clash, not every other week.
But it’s about the money, of course…..
May 22nd 2010 @ 11:19am
Brett McKay said | May 22nd 2010 @ 11:19am | Report comment
Nathan, where I think it gets confusing is whether the teams call them home & away strips, or main/alternate strips. Now, I’ve just done a quick scout of the four Australian sides’ websites, and they all (bar the Force) describe them as Home and Away strips. The Force, just to confuse us more, have a Home strip and an Alternate strip.
(The Brumbies also have a Traditional strip, and the Waratahs have the Charity strip as worn in the last round)
Now the idea of course is that Away strips get worn on the road, but I know the Reds wore their Home strip in Canberra this year, and the Brumbies wore their Traditional strip in Sydney and Christchurch. IN previous years, they’ve definitely worn the Away strip at home.
Still following?
I can only recall the Force wearing their Alternate strip in Invercargill against the Highlanders, though they may have worn it in SA too. In my mind they’ve got it right, they only wear the alternate strip when the main one is too close to the opposition.
So, the idea is right, it’s perhaps just not executed logically.
That all said, Sheek’s right, it probably has little to do with difference and more to do with merch income. Why only sell one jersey when you can sell two, or three, as the case may be??
May 23rd 2010 @ 11:25am
Nathan said | May 23rd 2010 @ 11:25am | Report comment
Thanks Brett and yes agree, it’s about selling more merchandise but like you point out it has become incredibly random these days ie the Crusaders were back in their traditional colours last night although playing away from home. The last time they played the Bulls they wore grey. If it weren’t for the mighty dollar perhaps a better option would be, like you say, to have a traditional jumper that is worn unless there is a clash. If there is a clash then the team playing away from home has to wear the alternate strip for instance. Perhaps even a white one for all teams playing away from home when jumpers clash therefore making it fair for everyone. The Stormers just wore white for all their away games this season and there was no problem. Do they actually make more money by having 2 or 3 jumpers ie do fans actually buy more than 1 jumper each season? p.s. Force played the Highlanders in Q’Town of all places.
May 23rd 2010 @ 11:37am
Brett McKay said | May 23rd 2010 @ 11:37am | Report comment
indeed Nathan, and Tahs wore their sky blue number too. Actually Mark Lawrence was referring to NSW as “Blue” and the Stormers as ‘Black”. Realistically, I think it is a case of main and alternate strips across the board, and on the whole most alternate strips across the comp are predominantly white. That’s a good thing, I think.
As for making more money, it’s a good question, I tend to agree with you that not many people would buy more than one, certainly not at $150+ each. But I guess at least it does give people choice; if you don’t like the main strip, there’s always an alternate, if you’ll pardon the pun. Truth be told, I don’t think much of the modern jerseys now, and I’m not about to update from my circa 2004 cotton jersey!!
And you’re right about Queenstown, thanks for the correction. I knew it wasn’t Dunedin…
May 22nd 2010 @ 1:02pm
mickh said | May 22nd 2010 @ 1:02pm | Report comment
In American sport it is quite impressive to see the teams jerseys/shirts void of any sponsorship logo’s at all. They stay true to the club colours and true to the heritage of the team.
In saying that the governing body’s of the individual sports hold TV advertising so dear and make so much money from the advertising that a shirt sponsor would be seen to get a free plug on television.
That is, sports make far more money from TV advertising than they could ever charge for shirt sponsorship. Tradition on one hand is being pushed by the corporate dollar on the other.
Take all sponsorship off international teams strips! It just cheapens the whole thing for me. I love it when we see teams playing in the World Cup sans sponsorship.
May 23rd 2010 @ 11:44am
Nathan said | May 23rd 2010 @ 11:44am | Report comment
Mmmm, interesting…would like to see the tradition remain and agree that the sponsorship/logos etc cheapen the whole thing. It feels like there is no space left where some sort of advertising can’t be placed. What about the player’s forehead, there is some space there! Just thought it was part and parcel of professional sport but just goes to show that it is possible. Maybe player’s jumpers should be off limits. Can’t see it happening anytime soon.
May 23rd 2010 @ 11:56am
Brett McKay said | May 23rd 2010 @ 11:56am | Report comment
Nathan, one of the NPC teams in NZ did just this last year (Hawke’s Bay?) The club and supporters had long hated the idea of sponsorship across the middle of their traditonal strip (which from memory is the classic black and white hoops), and when the club approached sponsors, they all got on board (or got “off”, more accurately).
Kiwi Roarers will be able to add more, no doubt. I’d be interested to see if the trend grows, or indeed lasts..
May 23rd 2010 @ 12:10pm
Nathan said | May 23rd 2010 @ 12:10pm | Report comment
Ok, great to hear. It actually makes the product more valuable (and look’s better too) if it is off limits to sponsors. They will just have to find another avenue or become more creative in their advertising perhaps. Good on them!
May 23rd 2010 @ 5:11pm
Sammy22 said | May 23rd 2010 @ 5:11pm | Report comment
Nathan
As a slight twist, Rugby traditionally had the home team play in the alternate strip when there was a clash of colours. The theory was the travelling (often touring) team wouldn’t know what colour the opposition would be and to save carrying extra kit on there travels the responsibility of changing was down to the home team. I’m not that old (my opinion not my kids) but remember having to change our kit on game day as a touring team turned up with the same colours only in the early ’80s (England)
I see the football Clubs run predominantly white away strips in the A league
The other problem could be that the laundry service is so slow getting the smell out of those bloody nylon shirt’s they have to keep changing
May 24th 2010 @ 7:38am
Nathan said | May 24th 2010 @ 7:38am | Report comment
Mmmm…white rugby jumpers. A mother’s nightmare!