FC Barcelona have the nicest rugby kit you’ve never seen

FC Barcelona are one of the most iconic and best known football teams on the planet, but did you know that in addition to basketball, volleyball and e-sports teams, the Catalan club also has a top-flight rugby union team?

They might be a far cry from the limelight of Messi and co, but the Blaugrana’s rugby union team has a great deal of heritage and pedigree – the club was founded in 1924 and has won the Spanish Championship 16 times – and that also applies to the club’s famous jerseys.

Yes, not only does the club sport the same blue and dark red vertical stripes of its more famous soccer club sibling, but just like FC Barcelona’s football team, the rugby team have the rare privilege of being one of just three remaining club teams on earth (that we’re aware of) who wear Nike kits.

And just like Saracens and Toulouse, Nike have done a bang-up job with their current home kit, which the club have been wearing since the start of the 2018 season. It’s presumably based on the FC Barcelona football shirt from that season, which had the same pinstriped take on the classic Barca recipe – though this one has been adapted for the rigours of rugby, complete with grip tape on the chest.

The shirt itself seems to be the same template that Nike created for Argentina back in 2018, with contrasting plain blue sleeves and a very subtle v-necked collar, which was a template that was of course also worn to great effect by our much missed, dearly lamented, Jaguares. RIP. We miss you so much.

That’s not all, however, Barcelona Rugby also sport an equally fetching Nike away kit that also emulates the football team.

The away kit is a lovely shade of duck egg blue and while there’s not much to talk about in terms of the design, it’s certainly very pretty – put it this way, if our club wore that until the end of time we think we’d be very happy.

As mentioned, FC Barcelona Rugby have been wearing this shirt since 2018, but before then they had another shirt that was even more unique.

Rather than emulate a football shirt this time, the Barcelona Rugby shirt from this era instead borrows the Nike 2012-era template, which was used in memorable fashion for the first Nike Pumas shirt when they entered the Rugby Championship, and also worn as a third kit by Toulouse in that season.

In Barca’s colours it’s certainly striking, and that’s a good thing, as it looks like Barca are expected to keep their rugby kits for a very long time – that shirt was worn for around five seasons, and with the current one coming into its fourth season, we may have to wait a while for the next one.

And given that Rugby Shirt Watch has heard rumours that Nike will soon be parting ways with Argentina, Saracens strongly rumoured to be wearing Castore next season, before long a Barca shirt might be the only club still wearing Nike.

And before you ask, sadly no, there don’t appear to be any replicas available.

Find out more about FC Barcelona Rugby at www.fcbrugby.com