Back in 2019, the Crusaders made the right decision in choosing to ditch their old logo and it’s unfortunate cultural baggage in favour of a new one that more truly reflected the team and culture of the local area. However, the decision came too soon for the jersey, and so they last season’s jerseys (which were launched after the new logo) instead had an interim logo in the usual spot.
Things got even more silly once the season kicked off, when the player jerseys sported both the interim logo AND the new logo in the middle of the chest – needless to say, it looked a bit of a mess, and so it’s great news to see that for 2021 the Crusaders will be proudly sporting their new logo in the right place.
It’s interesting that the club has opted to include both the Crusaders word mark and part of the club’s whakataukī, ‘mā pango, mā whero, ka oti te mahi’ – which roughly translated means, ‘With black and with red we will achieve’.
It looks quite busy, and while we sympathise that the club might be worried about fans not easily identifying the new logo (which has of course been noted also looks a bit like two penises kissing, how lovely) without the word mark, we think the jersey would look cleaner and more striking with just the logo.
Other than the new logo, however, the home shirt is unchanged from last season, but we do get an all-new jersey for 2021. Gone are the much-maligned ‘everyone has a blue away kit‘ Primeblue jerseys that dogged TV viewers in last year’s Super Rugby, and now we have ‘everyone has a white or grey away shirt’ plan for 2021.
It’s a lot better this way, let’s face it.
The Crusaders will wear their new threads for the first time when Super Rugby Aotearoa 2021 kicks off on 28 February.
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