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Rugby

11th Nov 2017

Jersey clash between Ireland and South Africa drew plenty of criticism

One clever solution

Niall McIntyre

Could easily have been avoided.

If you think about it, Ireland has a jersey clash with only one team in world rugby, South Africa – So, then it shouldn’t be the hardest thing in the world to ensure that the kits are different when these sides meet.

The last time the sides came head to head, in June 2016, in Port Elizabeth, this clash was avoided by South Africa wearing a white strip and Ireland wearing their traditional green.

Joe Schmidt’s Ireland opened their November series with Saturday’s big test against the Springboks, and straight from the kick-off, the dark green of the South Africa strip, and the grey of Ireland was drawing the ire of spectators and onlookers.

As pointed out by Andy McGeady, perhaps the best way to try and make the game an easier watch is to look at the shorts of both teams. South Africa are wearing white shorts and Ireland grey ones.

An early snap of Ireland centre Jacob Stockdale and South Africa’s Damian de Allende shows just how similar the strips were.

It didn’t seem to cause Ireland too many problems, with Jonny Sexton converting three penalties, and Andrew Conway running over a fine try down the right wing.

Needless to say, it caused some controversy on Twitter.

https://twitter.com/gjt90/status/929402135720194053

https://twitter.com/Jamspud/status/929408565034434560

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