horrid

there was a time when i had a desire to play rugby for england. for a short sweet period of time i thought i had what it took to be an international then genetics and laziness combined to ensure the best i would achieve would be a semi-regular place in the local club’s fourth team.
but i was a contender…
i have never forgotten the dream of proudly pulling on the white jersey of england, striding out at twickenham and scoring the winning try against wales (who at the time regularly beat england…)
back then rugby was am amateur game and there were was something pure about it, and nowhere was this made more evident than in the international team colours. england – white. wales – red, new zealand – black and so on. see pretty darned simple.

it might be true that the age of professionalism brought with it a vast improvement in the standard of play (though with less of the style), but what professionalism has done has brought about a new era of kit sales and kit sponsorship. for such a thing to work you need to change the kit on a regular basis.

the recently revealed english kit is truly horrid.



the swoosh is an echo of nike (the kit maker), the cross of st. george isn’t really a cross and almost looks like a stylised version of the puma brand (surely not what nike want me to think!) in short i think it is an ugly and busy shirt. in fact it could almost be a rugby league shirt.
but as bad as the white one is the red one is awful. lets ignore the fact that red is the colour of wales and pretend that this is a harkening back to the glory days of 1966. let us even forget that there is a red swoosh on a red shirt, we’ll ignore the fact that the “cross of st george” is now white after all while all these things are bad they are not awful but i have to ask what the fuck is going on with the one white sleeve? was it done as a bet?

nike has managed to produce something that is both very camp and very shit.
apparently the practical design of the top is calculated to help england, it is just a shame that the aesthetic look is bound to have opposition players just laughing themselves into a hernia. mind you if that means that england can successfully depend the world cup then it will be job done.

in the meantime the players have to don this rather camp top
one of the results of professionalism is that the making of money becomes crucially important. one way this is raised is through kit sponsorship, and one way you recoup you costs if you are a kit manufacturer is by releasing as many kits as you can. who would have thought that nike would have given the design job to a hyperactive child?




a number of fans have called for a boycotting of the kit. other fans have said it doesn’t matter what they play in as long as they improve on the games they have recently been having.
the kit will sell and nike will be happy
me? i am already missing the plain white top.