Leinster and Canterbury raised a few eyebrows when they revealed the club’s new tonal checkerboard home shirt a few weeks ago, and the away shirt is certainly no shrinking violet either.Ostensibly, this shirt is a simple palette swap of the home shirt – the checkerboard design is identical, the only change is the colours, but even so, it feels like something very different.
Rather than a subtle tonal pattern, Canterbury has opted to pull the checked design into the forefront with a white shirt emblazoned with light blue squares that certainly can’t be missed.
Looking something like a chilly Croatia shirt, this different treatment certainly stands out from the crowd, and actually allows us to appreciate the design a bit more clearly.
The mis-matching dots and hashes line patterns are much more noticeable than they were on the home shirt, while the colour fade on each blue square certainly makes this shirt feel more modern than a simple straight up checked design would – and also stops it from being a bit too blue – which would have been a bit of a problem for a Leinster change shirt, let’s face it…
This shirt isn’t going to be for everyone – for some this kind of pattern on a rugby shirt is a step too far – but we think it’s actually pretty cool, and without doubt is one of the most original and unique rugby shirts you’ll see this season.
Rugby Shirt Watch 