Italy are one of the few test nations who get a lot of mileage out of their alternate jersey. Half the teams in the Six Nations play in blue, so in any given season, there’s a reasonable chance that the Azzurri will need to wear their change shirt at least once, if not a couple of times in the premier Northern Hemisphere tournament.
It’s a far cry from teams such as Wales or England, who only use their change shirts perhaps once a season (sometimes never!) and even then it’s purely for promotional reasons in the autumn. An Italy change shirt is a fairly big deal then, and here we have Adidas’ design for the 2015 season. Let’s dive in…
We loved the new Italy home shirt that was released a few months back – it’s rapidly risen near to the top of our pile of this season’s jerseys, and with ostensibly the same design with some swapped colours, this one really hits the mark, too.
Just look at the damn thing – as handsome, clean and stylishly Italian as the Statue of David itself – but with less exposed genitalia, obviously.
Last year’s Italy away shirt veered from the the normal by pairing the usual white with green and red to bring a tricolour vibe to proceedings that we really liked. This year, we’re back with the more traditional white and sky blue combo… and we’re surprised to say we think we actually prefer it.
There’s a lovely simplicity to the plain white shirt with its simple blue touches – the colours work so well together, and by doing away with the gold third colour from the home shirt’s design, it gives it an even cleaner, even more restrained look.
Is it verging on being a little too plain? Well… perhaps. But if there’s one environment where we can forgive a plain, uncluttered shirt, it’s test rugby – shirts don’t need gimmicks or excessive ornamentation at this level, the colours are enough.
If there’s one thing the Italians know, it’s style. Well, that and riding scooters. Two things. Oh and grabbing their testicles. Three things then. But one of those is style… ahem… and this shirt has to be one of the most stylish and understated designs of the season.
Rugby Shirt Watch 