All Blacks Strip

The storm in a teacup about the All Blacks grey strip clashing with the Scots during the test on Sunday at Murrayfield seems to have mercifully died down now. It still hasn’t stopped a few at the NZRFU get their two cents worth about teams changing the colour of their jerseys (France and Wales) to uniforms very similar to the All Blacks. They feel this is a cunning ploy to put the ABs off their game plan but really, it just looks like a hefty dollop of paranoia to me.

What flabbergasts me more is the fact that about 2000 counterfeit All Black jerseys were found winging their way to Paris in the suitcases of some entrepreneurial Italian street sellers (but this isn’t what surprises me). What does is the fact that the garments in question were seized by authorities. Why anyone would care whether an All Black jersey was counterfeit or not is beyond me. At the end of the day, it is a black shirt with a white silver fern on it. It has been like that for over 100 years. Since when did imitations become rip offs? Maybe when Adidas started sponsoring the NZRFU I guess. It is sad that a behemoth group of corporate galahs like Adidas who have built their fortunes on the back of sweat shops and the poor should think they now own the All Black brand as well.

Plus – Adidias are a pack of killjoys. Allez Les Noir writes about the lack of jersey swapping after the Portuguese game. Not to mention they have put together some of the most schmaltzy, cheesy advertising campaigns that ever existed. Or maybe all New Zealand advertising is like this. I'm just not used to it. Anyway, big thumbs down to Adidas. Bring Back Canterbury.