Leicester Tigers 2017/18 Kukri Home & Away Shirts

The 2016/17 season was a turbulent one for Leicester Tigers – in the time since we last reviewed a Leicester home shirt, the Midlands stalwarts have had three different head coaches, and have veered between excellence and abysmal at the drop of a hat. 

With that in mind then, Tigers fans could probably do with a bit of stability and familiarity, and so it’s no surprise their new kit supplier, Kukri, has taken a very old-school approach to their 17/18 threads.

Tigers fans will no doubt remember the absolute abomination that Kooga churned out as their first attempt two seasons ago, but Kukri is clearly not going to make the same mistake as their JD Group stablemate.

So, what we have here is a classic green Leicester shirt, with red and white paired hoops, on the body. There’s a little twist on the original, in the shape of a darker shade of green providing tonal contrast hoops on the body, but we actually think that looks very cool.

It’s a pity that things aren’t continued around the back really – we thought teams had got the message about hoops that only go half way around, but apparently not – we instead have a plain green reverse with a weird red panel on the back that gives us worrying flashbacks of Gilbert templates of old.

That doesn’t take away from what is otherwise a very cool, very lovely home shirt, however, and things only get better…

The change jersey is the Tigers’ classic white alternative colour, and it bares a great similarity to the design Leicester wore in their final year with Canterbury, with the tonal pinstripes of that design echoed here.

Here, we have rather lovely red and green stripes accenting the striking white of the jersey’s body, and very nice it is too.

One of the standout features of both of these shirts is the collar – abandoning the half-stub collar of the Kooga days, replacing it with a more classic fold-over design.

The design is a modern, low-profile take on the old-school collar, that’s not a million miles away from what we saw on the Lions’ shirt, and we like it rather a lot.

Again, the red panel on the back of the jersey isn’t our favourite, and again, we wish that the pinstripes carried all the way around, but this is again, an absolutely fantastic design – it’s possibly even nicer than the home.

Kukri hasn’t had a Premiership team since they parted ways with Wasps in 2015, but they’ve done some cool stuff with Ulster since. This is a strong return to English rugby for the brand, however, and one that has us excited for the future.