England who are already taking flack for their Black Jerseys suffered further embarrassment when the numbers started to peel of early in the World Cup game against Argentina on Saturday.
Why the numbers are not put on in the factory eludes us, but it seems they were bonded on by a local company in New Zealand, maybe they rushed the process or did not have the full specification of the new 86% polyester and 14% spandex used to make the shirts. Whatever they will need to make big improvements as the problem occurred all over the park affecting many positions, though more backs than forwards.
England have received a warning from Rugby World Cup organisers to address the problem and need to fix the peeling shirt numbers or face some form of sanction. As a lack of clear numbers is said to be in breach of the tournament rules, though we could not find this where we checked. So if any of our readers know please tell us which rule it is? This may be more the case (quote) “a failure for teams to have clear shirt numbers is a breach of the tournament participation agreement.” (end quote)
Whatever the situation there is no doubt that clear numbers are necessary to help the officials when substitutions are made and also to report on foul play. The numbers are also needed to help commentators identify players and communicate their names to the TV audiences as well as spectators at the games. Finally Joe public like to be able to identify who is who and the number are an essential part of this.
2003 RWC Tearing Shirts
Does anyone remember the problem they had with the new tight fitting shirts ripping during the 2003 Rugby World Cup in Australia? That was sorted out pretty quickly but it was not a good advertisement for Nike as England beat South Africa but had most of their shirts torn by the Boks.