For the last two seasons, the Cardiff Blues European shirt has served a dual purpose. Firstly, of course, it’s there do give the Blues a distinctive look when they take to the field for their Challenge Cup campaign, but that’s not all. Following the tragic injury that ended the promising career of Blues and Wales centre Owen Williams in 2014, the region has really rallied around their former teammate and support him in his recovery from a severe spinal injury, and one of the most visible ways ways they did this was the European jersey they wore between 2015 and 2017.
That shirt fused the colours of the Blues with those of Williams’ hometown club, Aberdare RFC, and the 2017/18 version continues that theme, but with a slightly different spin.
Blue and yellow have become the colours of the #StayStrongForOws awareness and fundraising campaign, and those are the colours that are given prominence here, with bright yellow sleeves and collar paired with thin pale yellow hoops on the body.
Upon closer inspection of these hoops, you can see that they’re actually a diagonally hatched pattern that is thicker on the sections that look more solid, and thinner on the areas that look more pale.
It’s a very similar hatched pattern to the one used on the thin hoops used on the new Blues home shirt, but obviously in a thicker and more overt form – it’s something that looks great, and quite different at the same time.
In addition, the shirt also places the logo of the #StayStrongForOws campaign in the centre of the chest, and while this design might not be quite as beautiful as the original effort, it’s still a very nice shirt, and it’s still raising awareness for the most worthwhile of causes. For both of those reasons, it’s a winner for us.
Rugby Shirt Watch 