For anyone who doesn’t follow Rugby the New Zealand national team, perhaps the most well known rugby team in the world, are known as the All Blacks and, you guessed it, wear all black.  The English national team jerseys for this fall’s  Rugby World Cup were just revealed and in a stunning break with tradition the Brits will be rocking an all-black version of their jersey to complement the traditional white.

The uniform reveal sparked immediate controversy in rugby circles with New Zealand not only traditionally owning the color but hosting the World Cup.  England aren’t shy about their new color:

 

 

Former All Blacks captain Sean Fitzpatrick made it perfectly clear where he thinks the confrontation is coming from:

It’s all about a war between adidas and Nike.

Yup, Adidas does the All Black’s uniforms while Nike are responsible for England so this is just the latest front in their global sportswear brand war.  In the end the battle will likely be won by whichever manufacturers team goes farthest in the tournament.  Each team has won the cup once but England got theirs in 2003, and finished second in 2007, while New Zealand have to go back to the inaugural World Cup in 1987 for their one and only title.

The only real questions are will these teams meet on the field and will we have the unintentional comedy of a British commentator talking about “black on black crime.”

 

Via DailyMail