Rugby Australia to set Wallabies colours in stone
The colour and design of the Wallabies jersey has changed many times. The boss of Rugby Australia wants that to stop.
Indulge me for a moment. Close your eyes and think of the Springbok and Irish jersies. Both green but at opposite ends of the spectrum – the Bok jersey myrtle green, the Irish unmistakably emerald. Now think of the Wallabies jersey.
What colour comes to mind? Gold, obviously, but what shade of gold? Canary gold, mustard, honey, lemon, butterscotch, yellow, orange? Seemingly all of them have held sway in the Australian jersey over the past 50 years. Like slaves to fashion, the Wallabies get to play in a new outfit every season but one wonders what the effect has been on both players and supporters.
Last year during the World Cup tournament, there were some 40,000 Australian fans following their team in Japan. Seemingly everywhere you looked, there were gold jersies and when they all came together on game day, they made an extraordinary sight. And, yet, look closer and they struck a slightly discordant note. They could have been supporting Romania or the Hurricanes or even been wearing the Western Force’s away strip, so many different threads of gold were there in the crowd.
I appreciate that by varying the colour from year to year, those well-heeled fans who want to stay current have to fork out a couple of hundred dollars for a new jersey, but at what cost to tradition and continuity? Does the baggy green get a makeover every cricket season? And while the trimming and piping might be tinkered with, when does one ever see New Zealand coming out with a new shade of black, or England of white? It is not as though England suddenly morphs into a beige-coloured team on some fashion designer’s whim.
There aren’t too many advantages to being chairman of Rugby Australia these days. Mostly it has been a challenge for all who have filled it in recent years and almost invariably the chairmen leave office feeling bloodied and bruised. It has been pretty much all downside since Hamish McLennan took over the role, negotiating with unruly SANZAAR partners, dealing with the unpredictable on a daily basis and trying to rationalise RA’s finances and future. Still, the one small advantage is that he gets to address the things that really irk him and right now he has turned his attention to the Wallabies jersey.
His explanation of why Australia has chopped and changed colours on the jersey is as good as anyone’s. “Perhaps it is symptomatic of our inconsistent approach on a range of levels,” he ventured. “But I’m looking to tap into our heritage and not change it.
“You wouldn’t change the Coca-Cola red or Tiffany blue and when you see it, you instantly recognise it. The same with the baggy green. So we are going to gather together a group of esteemed Wallabies and coaches and will lay out a process and vote on the jersey colour and then not change it. The Wallaby jersey is premium and unique in Australian sport and the Wallaby gold will be cast in stone.”
He admits he has a personal favourite, the jersey that Nick Farr-Jones and his teammates wore when Australia won the World Cup for the first time, back in 1991. But he is going to let democracy rule. “It stood out,” he said. “You should feel like you are tapping into a long and proud history if you are lucky enough to pull on the jersey.”
It is indeed a long and proud history. There was the understated simplicity of the jersey when the Wallabies set off for a circuit of the Sydney Cricket Ground after beating the All Blacks in 1979, complete with (Adidas) racing stripes. A decade later, when Tim Horan and Jason Little were beginning to make a name for themselves, the jersey hadn’t changed much but the collar sure had, changing from gold to green. Then it became just a tad more orangey in the aftermath of the 1995 World Cup.
And in 1997 there came the absolute affront, the one which Sydney Morning Herald columnist Peter FitzSimons described as “volcanic vomit on a rag”, with competing green and white triangles against a backdrop of a “pucy pukey colour”. What an absolute travesty that John Eales played some of the best rugby any Australian has ever produced while wearing “that” jersey. Eales might have risen above it but there was no way most other Australians intended laying down their life for that particular jersey.
And then there was the one that Australia wore to the 2015 World Cup. Fairly good results on the pitch given that the Wallabies did reach the final against the All Blacks but all the golden colour was washed right out of the jersey and without a collar, everyone mistook them for the Socceroos.
The Queensland side has just completed a full circuit of their own journey of discovery. Just because spectators used to chant “red, red, red” in the last days of amateurism, the QRU thought it would be a good idea to tilt them in that direction. And yes, they did win a Super Rugby title in 2011 wearing an entirely red outfit but how quickly they lost their way in the years afterwards. Finally, under Brad Thorn, they abandoned the exercise and reverted to the traditional strip of maroon jersies and navy shorts. And all Queenslanders breathed a sigh of relief. They might still be the Reds but they are once again bleeding maroon.
Now the current Wallabies have announced they want to see indigenous themes worked into their regular jersey, not just occasionally but all the time. McLennan believes that too is worth exploring. But one change at a time. Jersies can be retro or state-of-the-art but when they are worn by the national team, everything become important and symbolic, the colours most especially.
Australia’s colours are green and gold.
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