You don't need a pair of gloves to play rugby, yet in the mid-2000s they were all you saw..
Here are six of the worst trends in rugby gear since the game turned professional.
Pink
In 2006 Stade Francais president Max Guazzini introduced pink jerseys as an attempt to shock the "macho world" of rugby. Typically those trendy Parisians were on to something and it spread like wildfire.
Somehow macho rugby players thought that wearing a colour perceived as effeminate made them even more macho.
Once the fushia flood gates opened there was no going back. With the shock factor dying incrementally over the past ten years to and the number of clubs attempting to cash in on pinkmania rising sharply. Now the colour is ubiquitous in the game. Raised eyebrows have given way to indifferent shrugs as it has become the unofficial colour of the sport. Grand for the effortlessly cool French known for their sartorial elegance, not so much for the rest of us for whom it does it does little else besides highlight our beer bellies.
Silver boots
The silver boots in the photo are actually not the worst but its trend they started that got them into this list. Since our very own BOD debuted the footwear back in 2002 there was no going back. A battle for the soles of the game began and has long since been lost.
They changed the game from a time where everyone wore black to present day where you would struggle to find pair of black boots in any rugby match. Whats wrong with black? it was good enough for a 100 years until Brian O'Driscoll and Adidas came along and ruined it for traditionalists everywhere.
Rugby footwear hit it's lowest point in 2011 when the All Blacks turned their backs on the old ways in favour of wearing "trendy" colours like neon orange and lime zest or whatever!
Thankfully they reverted to the colour in their name for the 2015 world cup but it was based around a marketing campaign that outrageously claimed that the new Zealand kits were the "blackest ever".
It's enough to make you miss high top Mizunos.
Customized Head Gear
This seems to be an attempt by players to look hard by drawing animal prints on their neoprene safety hats.
Like a large amount of rugby fashion trends, Welsh players seemed to be the biggest victims. Our main culprit was Simon Easterby, though in his defense he was playing for Llanelli at the time. So maybe he was susceptible to dressing room peer pressure.
Players could get the intimidating look of their favorite dangerous animals like "Cobra", "Leopard", "Tiger" and "Zebra".
You still see them occasionally but like the animals they were copying they are an endangered species these days.
Massive Shoulder Pads
At the turn of the century enormous shoulder pads were all the rage, perhaps the advent of professionalism had them looking across the Atlantic to the NFL to see just how one could look like a professional athlete in a full contact sport.
They decided that 2 square feet of foam on either shoulder was the way to go. In hindsight it made grown men look like school boys and made school boys like they were trying to smuggle balloons in their over-sized cotton jerseys.
An increase in the number of collarbone and shoulder injuries by players wearing them lead to a sharp decline in sales. Players still wear the padding but its a lot more subtle and effective these days.
Gloves
We will forgive Quinny for his love of the glove. For all the others that participated in this fad shame on you.
People may forget just how prevalent these things were but at least half of all international were wearing them in 2003 World Cup.
The big problem with them was while there was an inconsequential improvement to your grip you couldn't really feel the ball and passing became more difficult for the wearer. Not sure how they even lasted as long as they did but they are now consigned to the dustbin of rugby history.
Forearm Protector
The main reason these were included on the list was because they were absolutely useless just look at how sad it made Scott Quinell to wear one.
