French rugby can often be a chaotic and confusing place – just ask Bernard Laporte – but there are some things that can always be relied on. French clubs will have budgets to make a banana republic blush, they’ll have an abysmal record away from home regardless of how ridiculously talented their squads are, and Bordeaux Bègles will have beautiful shirts.For as long as we’ve been at this game, the partnership of UBB and Kappa has rarely failed to delight, and this season isn’t any different, let’s face it.
First up, we have what UBB are terming their ‘Bleu’ jersey, and it’s a beautifully unique blend of dark blue with light and dark stripes, accented by a lovely deep red (‘Bordeaux’, natch) stripe across the chest. It’s an exercise in understated classic design that feels totally unique at the same time.
UBB have often sought to reference the maritime history of Bordeaux and Bègles, and that’s what this shirt does here – the blue tonal stripes symbolising the crashing waves of the Atlantic ocean.
It’s a beautiful design, but moving onto the ‘Blanc’ jersey sees Kappa raise there game even more, accentuating the two other colours of the club, white and dark red, in the best possible way – hoops!
With UBB pushing on in their quest to become a true force in French and European rugby, this shirt represents the modern Union Bordeaux Bègles, complete with none-more-current light grey additions.
It’s a stunning design – the colours work perfectly together, and the grey hoop does add a nice little modern twist on a classic design – French rugby doesn’t usually do hoops, but when they do they clearly know what they’re doing.
Finally, we have the ‘Bordeaux’ jersey – and it’s an ode to the colour that bares the town’s name. It also makes use of the ‘scapular’ (that’s the chevron or V to the rest of us) – something that’s more associated with rugby league in English-speaking countries, but is very common in French club rugby. UBB have been keen exponents of this themselves in recent years, so it’s nice to see it make a return here.
The scapular is the only non-red part of the design, with the pinstriped dark blue V cutting into the shades of red that combine to create yet another lovely design.
You’ll notice that we haven’t described these shirts as ‘home’, ‘away’ or ‘third’ shirts, and that’s not by accidents. It seems like Bordeaux Bègles have opted to not designate their shirts for a specific use – instead opting for ‘Bleu’, ‘Blanc’ and ‘Bourdeaux’.
We like this, as it gives the club the flexibility to use whatever shirt they want whenever they want – as demonstrated when they wore their ‘Blanc’ shirt at home to Clermont to open the season. And when you have three utterly gorgeous shirts like this, why shouldn’t your home fans get to appreciate them now and then. Magnifique!
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