Euro rugby chiefs sorry after Blues kit confusion
CARDIFF Blues’ game against Glasgow Warriors at the weekend has been making headlines for all the wrong reasons.
From a Welsh perspective, not only is it because the Blues fell to defeat on home soil to the Scots but because there was an almighty kit clash at the Arms Park on Sunday - and nobody is happy about it.
Gareth Anscombe branded it a ‘disgrace’ and said that whoever is responsible should face consequences.
Blues boss John Mulvihill called it ‘ridiculous’ and even Glasgow head coach Dave Rennie enquired about changing kits at half time.
“We had Tommy Seymour bringing the ball back and he wasn’t sure where the holes were,” said Rennie.
So how was this allowed to happen and why didn’t one of the teams change kits?
Who decides on the kits and when?
All teams send their kits to tournament organisers EPCR before the competition begins.
They have to designate at least two kits – for the Blues this is their European strip and their normal home strip – and a third one if necessary. The Blues actually submitted their jerseys at the event launch on September 26.
At that launch, in Dublin, Glasgow were wearing their black home kit, with the light blue jersey they wore on Sunday designated as their other kit for European matches.
Joel Jutge, EPCR’s head of officials, and their operations team will then sit down and designate which kits are to be worn by teams in every pool match.
The information is then relayed to the teams. But the teams are only sent the digital designs of each kit, In this case a clash is less apparent when you look at the digital images.
It wasn’t until Glasgow began changing into their kit after the warm-ups, a matter of minutes before kick off, that the issue became obvious.
Why didn’t Cardiff Blues change their kit?
Quite simply, it wasn’t feasible.
Mulvihill suggested they would have had to send someone to their Vale Resort training base to gather some alternative kit. On a good day, that’s a 40-minute round trip.
Then there are commercial obligations to consider.
The kits would have had to have been collected and then had the appropriate logos - like the European Heineken Champions Cup emblem - printed on them.
There wasn’t enough time.
Why didn’t Glasgow bring two kits?
It’s difficult to point the finger at the teams here.
The Scottish side were simply doing as they were told by tournament officials in bringing their light blue strip.
Head coach Dave Rennie said they would have been more than happy to bring one of their other kits with them.
Besides, it’s customary for the home team to change in the event of a kit clash.
What EPCR say...
“EPCR has procedures in place for ensuring that playing kits for matches in its tournaments are distinctive, however, these procedures were not sufficiently followed through last weekend’s Heineken Champions Cup, Round 2 match at Cardiff Arms Park.
“EPCR will be formally contacting both Cardiff Blues and Glasgow Warriors in due course to apologise.”
It wasn’t the only clash this weekend
An all-French affair in the European Challenge Cup was delayed this weekend due to a kit clash.
Bordeaux against Perpignan was pushed back 15 minutes after the officials deemed the two kits too similar to play.
They ordered the home team, Bordeaux, to change their strip before the game got underway.
What will happen when Blues and Glasgow play again?
The two teams will play each other in Europe again on January 13 at Scotsoun. Clearly, the same kit situation will not be allowed to happen again.
Now, of the four kits submitted by the two sides for Europe, the best scenario would probably be for Glasgow to wear their Black home kit and the Blues to wear the European jersey they wore on Sunday.
You could argue this is still not ideal, and there is potential for the Blues’ white kit to come into play, given sides are told to have a third kit that can be used as a back-up.
They actually face each other in the Guinness PRO14 next month, on November 23, when you’d expect Glasgow to play in black and the Blues to play in the white away strip they use for some away games in the PRO14.