We’re putting our shirt on Paisley
Rugby squad back City of Culture bid with a colourful new jersey
Paisley Rugby Club are getting ready to ditch tradition to join the scrum supporting the town’s City of Culture bid. The club’s main sponsors, Intu Braehead and the University of the West of Scotland have lent a hand to help kit out the side as they look to throw their backing behind the bid. Players and supporters were asked to vote between three new kits for the upcoming season. Instead of the traditional navy and red kit usually worn by the Anchor side, all three options were designed with the bid in mind... resulting in a new striking pink strip emblazoned with the bid logo. For club president, MP Gavin Newlands, the move to the new colours is one that he says was a no- brainer for everyone associated with the club. And having seen one of his parliamentary colleagues take centre stage for sporting a football top in a recent debate, Newlands conceded it might be a bit more difficult to get away unnoticed if he was to sport the club’s pink top in and around Westminster.
Newlands told Express Sport : “I am absolutely delighted with the fantastic response we’ve had from Buddies to our online public poll. We are extremely proud to support Paisley’s bid and we think taking this exciting Paisley 2021 strip across Scotland in what we hope is a winning season for the club is a great way of doing that.
“We have to thank Paisley 2021 partners Intu Braehead and UWS for making this support possible by sponsoring the tops and shorts for the coming season.
“My colleague Hannah Bardell MP, recently received a lot of attention for wearing a Scotland football top in the chamber of the House of Commons, it might be more difficult for me to wear this top in the chamber but I’ll certainly be taking one down to Westminster.”
The Paisley side are currently preparing for the upcoming West Division 2 season, which sees them start their campaign at home to Birkmyre on September 2.
The clash with the Kilmacolm side will allow fans the first opportunity to see the players all kitted out in the new strip as they begin the season in style.
And the rugby club’s Euan Stuart added his own thanks to the sponsors, and the public, for their support for the new strips.
He said: “I would just like to thank our sponsors Intu Braehead, the University of the West of Scotland, and the public for voting on our strips for next season. They were all pink, all lovely and a lot of Paisley pattern. It was a close vote and there was only a couple of votes between them, but I’m delighted to announce that option number three is the winner.”