Nike are out and Canterbury in for England, The Saxons, The Sevens, The Womens teams and all age grade teams. The new deal sees the brand with England for at least four years from September 2012 and into the 2015 Rugby World Cup. The first exposure will be for the Autumn Internationals against Fiji 10 November, Australia 17 November, South Africa 24 November and New Zealand 1 December.
England have also announced a new deal with O2 to continue their sponsorship for another four years and this is said to be worth between £25m and £30m. Fantastic news for the new Chief Executive Ian Ritchie and his team.
The Rugby World Cup being in England in 2015 has had an impact on the value of the deals and as previously alluded to the old deal was worth £4m per annum making this is a huge increase.
O2 chief executive Ronan Dunne said O2 was looking for “interactive opportunities” in the lead-up to the RWC 2015 and not merely to plaster their logo wherever they could. He also said: “With recent arrivals on the executive team at the RFU, we looked at our next four years and to see if we could deliver value for O2 and our customers, and the answer was ‘yes’.” Our focus was very much looking forward rather than looking back. We are confident we can add value to one another.”
Watch this space for any previewing of the new kit.