A few weeks back we took a look at Wales’ rather controversial new 2013 home kit from Under Armour. And y’know what, we liked it, red shorts ‘n’ all. Today, we’ll be taking a look at the new alternate shirt, which will get its first showing against Tonga on Friday.
On Twitter after the home kit had launched, we were wondering about what colour the alternate kit would be, and half-jokingly said that as the two kits were so similar, the away kit might just be the same as Clermont’s.
Well, in case your memory needs jogging, here’s Clermont’s away kit. And next week’s lottery numbers are: 4, 9, 19, 21, 28, 34.
It’s so similar, it’s actually quite annoying, really – literally the only differences are the side panel colour and pattern, and the way the side panel carries on up into the armpit. That’s it. If you wanted to be picky, you could say that the dragon scale ArmourGrip pattern is different, as is the ‘dragon’s tail’ motif on the shoulder (much more evident here than it is on the home shirt), but they’re both minor cosmetic differences.
Some fans, quite a lot if our Twitter feed is to be believed, really hate grey shirts – to a positively OTT degree. Like, it goes Hitler, kitten-drowners and then grey shirts on their list of worst things in the universe. If you’re one of those people, it’s too late for you, so you might as well just listen to Friday’s game on the radio instead.
Anyway, we actually have a real soft spot for grey shirts, there’s something pleasingly utilitarian about it we think. And this one’s perfectly nice on the surface of it – it’s a good design, and we think the red and black works with the grey far better than ASM’s blue and yellow does.
What’s more, this shirt is of little consequence outside of the game against Tonga. Wales play in red, and very few other nations in the rugby world do, so we’ll be surprised if Wales actually wear this shirt more than twice – maybe the WRU will invite Japan or Canada over next year just to give them an excuse to wear the damn thing again, but that’s it.
And yet, we can’t help but feel a bit short-changed, just like we did with the Ireland alternate kit we looked at last week. England and France have both shown the way with interesting non-templated away shirts this Autumn, and given that Under Armour are a fairly new brand in the rugby scene, it’s frustrating that they haven’t really gone to that much effort to create an interesting alternate kit for their biggest brand in the game.
SHIT/GOOD RATING: Good, but a bit uninspired.
Rugby Shirt Watch 
