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I am big fan of Super Rugby, but if there is one thing about it which annoys me – apart from the home town refs, long travel times and unfortunate time-difference problems – it’s the ludicrous dominance of blue in the teams’ jerseys.
Spiro Zavos has touched on this in his complaints about clashing jerseys, but while Spiro laments the poor administration of the tournament that sees teams fail to wear away jerseys when there is a clear conflict with colours, I lament that such a consideration should be so often necessary in the first place.
Have you ever looked at just how many of the teams in the competition feature blue prominently in their jerseys? The Waratahs, Bulls, Blues, Force, Rebels, Highlanders and Stormers all wear predominately blue (different shades, but blue all the same). Add the Brumbies in (who were wearing an almost full navy kit not long ago), and over half the teams in the competition have blue featuring prominently in their home jerseys.
Super Rugby is made of provinces with traditional colours, so in some sense it’s understandable, but not with our now acquisitions. Both the Force and Rebels could have chosen other colours, but instead decided they’d do their utmost to make the colour scheme even more confusing than it already was.
The Force should be yellow and black, but decided against using their state colours because they didn’t want to clash with the Hurricanes. What? You don’t use your state colours because you worry about them clashing with one team, and instead pick a colour used by half the teams in the competition?
For the Rebels, I understand navy is Victoria’s state colours, but the Rebels aren’t Victoria; they’re Melbourne. Why couldn’t they play in purple or even dark green? Again, pretty well any other colour than navy blue would have been a better idea.
Some people may argue that Super Rugby has bigger problems and this is purely cosmetic, but the colour issue is symptomatic of the deeper issues. The competition’s administrators can’t even seem to manage the uniforms of the participating teams, so it’s little wonder they bungle referees, scheduling and game times.
Perhaps SANZAR could get the Rebels and Force to follow the path of the Highlanders by introducing a new away jersey that isn’t just white (the automatic away selection for pretty well every blue team), but a unique colour that unclutters the tide of blue that dominates the competition.
Get the force to wear a different shade of yellow to the ‘Canes and put the Rebels in dark green or purple. The Brumbies are still mostly white, so we can leave them alone.
The Aussie conference should really have more than two colour schemes now that there are five teams.
Join The Roar rugby editor Christy Doran, former Wallaby Matt Toomua and a cast of regular and special guests as they look at the biggest issues in the game on The Roar Rugby Podcast. If you’re looking for great odds on the next game check out Aussie bookmaker PlayUp. Chances are you’re about to lose. Set a deposit limit.