The new Irish rugby jersey was revealed today at Carton House and traditional media had to wait for fans on the social networks to get the first glimpse.
This is part of a stated aim of Canterbury, the IRFU and new sponsors Three to put the fans front and centre stage.
It makes sense as they will be the ones buying the kit and there was a genuine sense of excitement among the fans brought to the launch who received the kind of ‘money can’t buy’ experience that is increasingly central to the way in which sport is helping business reach out to fans at the same time as it is itself.
The fans got to see a closed training session first, all part of the IRFU’s latest camp with the players before having lunch where the players dine at the Kildare resort. They were told that the eight chairs at the front of the room would be filled by players at 1-30 and at 1-15 they were joined by Joe Schmidt for the kind of chat that most would only dream about.
Damian O’Meara brought the players through a question and answer session that included one ‘call out’ from a wheelchair rugby playing fan for the players to take part in a challenge match on two wheels.
Without missing a beat Paul O’Connell accepted the challenge, so long as a wheelchair big enough could be found. Now there’s a way to promote January’s Dublin hosting of the Wheelchair Rugby European Championships.
The two jerseys revealed will be the ones used through next year’s defence of the RBS Six Nations and the Rugby World Cup in England. The first shirt is what is referred to as a Bosphorous Green with the alternate kit, to be worn in November against South Africa drawing inspiration from the first shirt ever worn by an Irish Rugby team as far back as 1875.
That alone is a good mix of the modern and the traditional that the different parties want to stress as being core to what Rugby offers. The game itself finished in a 7-0 defeat to England but there were 20 players on each team so it may have been a bit congested.
The most obvious change on the kit, apart from the manufacturer’s logo, is the presence of 3 on the shirt, following on from the brand’s takeover of O2 earlier in the summer.
There has been some negative reaction to the fact that this alone is seen as making the Irish national rugby and soccer kits look similar but they do say you can’t please all of the people all of the time and if, as expected, 3 continues the strides made in focusing on fans then there will be a lot to be gained.
“We are at a very early stage of planning how our rugby engagement with fans will emerge,” said Three’s Gavin McAllister speaking to Sport for Business at the launch. “The one thing we will hold firm to though is that whatever we do will be true to the fans of each sport.”
“We have learnt a lot from our engagement with soccer fans over recent years and will do likewise through the O2 experience with rugby up until now.”
It will please the sponsors, and the manufacturers Canterbury that the fan base sent the launch theme of #TogetherforIreland trending on twitter within an hour of the launch and that all the main retailers of Elvery’s, Lifestyle Sports and others were joining in the conversation.
Join us in the morning for a chat with Chris Stephenson, the CEO of Canterbury on why the Irish Rugby kit matters to his company.
