Ospreys
The Ospreys 2008-9 kit began the region’s trend of experimenting with a contrast colour other than white/grey to go with the primary black. Instead, they adopted a bold blood-red Celtic knot motif that was a hit with fans, but hasn’t been seen since. That is until now of course – the Celtic knot makes a striking return here, dominating the front of the shirt. It’s an interesting choice to pair it with the orange piping, however, and all in all, we’re really not sure if it works. Kooga’s kit designers are second only to Under Armour in the over-complication stakes, and we can’t help but think this is all a bit busy and tacky. Still, there’s nothing inherently wrong with it, and we like the ‘77-1’ (77 clubs, one region) motif on the bottom of the shirt too – a nice touch.
SHIT/GOOD RATING: GOOD. ISH.
Scarlets
Burrda have a mixed record in their rugby shirt designs – they’ve done good and bad for the likes of Toulon, Northampton and Scarlets in the past, and this is sort of in the middle. There’s nothing ‘wrong’ with the shirt per se – it’s quite fetching in a way, and we actually quite like some little details – the ‘Calon ac Enaid’ (‘Heart and soul’) in Welsh on the bottom of the sleeve is a lovely addition to a shirt that celebrates the 140th year since the founding of Llanelli RFC. What we’re less keen on though, is the almost invisible club badge (what’s wrong with white?) the ‘dragon wing’ motif on the front of the shirt (it just looks like a load of nonsensical lines) and yes, that Burrda ‘wave’. We appreciate why the designers keep putting it in every kit they make – you can easily tell it’s a Burrda kit, even from a distance – but it’s just so samey now. The brand has established itself in rugby enough that it doesn’t really need these gimmicks anymore. Get rid of them, and give your designers a bit more freedom, and we reckon Burrda could make some really handsome kits.
SHIT/GOOD RATING: SHIT. ISH.
A big bag of meh for our final two Welsh region shirts, but will the trend continue with the Scottish clubs? The kits are released later this week, so check back to see what we make of Edinburgh and Glasgow’s new threads.
Rugby Shirt Watch 
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