On Sunday, 10 September 2023, South Africans made their way to the nearest watering hole, ducking and diving load-shedding schedules to catch the Bokke’s first test match in the Rugby World Cup in Marseille, France.
While the Springboks enjoyed an 18-3 victory over Scotland, establishing their World Cup title defence, when the Bokke first hit the pitch, everyone wanted to know what was up with the mint green kit.
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Here’s the story.
Why did the Springboks have a mint-green kit?
According to the Springboks, the away kit was aqua, and not mint-green, even though many could swear the team had been sponsored by Checkers or Listerine, due to the colour association.
These are getting out of hand. 😂😂#RWC2023 pic.twitter.com/I1dBsve50u
— Jared Wright (@jaredwright17) September 12, 2023
Proudly sponsored by Listerine 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 pic.twitter.com/fZ8gJhHZHx
— Ashley (@AshleyP2809) September 11, 2023
Contrary to popular belief, this away kit was actually the first by the new kit sponsor, Nike.
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In an effort to make the sport more inclusive and cater to the needs of differently-abled spectators, World Rugby released its guidelines catered to colour vision deficiency (CVD). An estimated 300 million people live with some form of CVD. These guidelines are to become policy for World Rugby tournaments from 2025.
World Rugby has worked closely with the Participating Unions and Colour Blind Awareness (CBA) for the Rugby World Cup 2023 to encourage certain kit combinations in an effort to avoid kit ‘clashes’ – where the kit colours appear too similar to colour-blind people.
All primary, alternate and match official kits were tried and tested early this year, ensuring maximum contrast between opposing teams and match officials.
Expect to see alternative kits on the field for the rest of the Rugby World Cup, with Portugal as the next team up to wear alternative kit versus Wales on 16 September to support the cause.
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Feature image: @springboks / X formerly known as Twitter
