Ireland v South Africa once again brought up a jersey colour clash between the sides, with fans making their voices heard online.
Ireland were debuting their new navy blue jersey, while South Africa wore their traditional dark green jersey at the Aviva Stadium. As predicted, this caused havoc as fans watching the game both in the stands and on television struggled to tell the sides apart.
The sides met in 2017 and it was once again an issue, with Ireland wearing a grey and green jersey that caused similar issues.
The colour clash is so distracting😂 #IREvRSA
— Danni Williams ☠️ (@danni_bvb) November 5, 2022
Quite fortunate that the shorts are a different colour in the Ireland vs. South Africa game, but, I still think it's quite a big kit clash.
— Rhys Edwards (@rhyse) November 5, 2022
@JackoRugby shocking kit colour clash, Ireland vs South Africa
— Lyn Jones (@lynmeurigjones) November 5, 2022
I hope it is easier to see in the stadium, but the clash in kits on the wide view on TV is super annoying.
Admittedly, I am colour blind...but there had to be another choice of jersey for Ireland here.
It's also a terrible kit. What were you thinking @canterburyNZ#IREvRSA— Ruaidhrí (@RuaidhriGroom) November 5, 2022
The disregard for supporters watching in the stadium and particularly on TV with this jersey clash at the Aviva absolutely stinks. No surprise, we knew it was coming and they still did nothing. Ridiculous.
— Con Murphy (@ConMurphySport) November 5, 2022
South Africa are the only side in the world that Ireland have to wear an alternative jersey, so it is disappointing to see that a jersey can’t be created to that isn’t similar to the Springboks.
Ireland v South Africa - a predictable colour clash
In 2027, Ireland will have to wear an alternative jersey to face Wales, with green and red jerseys causing huge issues for people who suffer colorblindness issues.
Kathryn Albany-Ward of Color Blind Awareness spoke to Balls.ie earlier this week on the lack of understanding shown by Ireland's kit design and what needs to be done in the future.
We've been doing research on the prevalence of colour blindness at elite level. So we haven't done it for rugby players specifically, but we've been working with national and high level elite clubs to screen players, and we are finding that we've got slightly less than the statistical average of a number of players in every squad [who are] colour blind. So for football, that's at least one in every team - in rugby, we know it's 2 to 3 and every team.
So, you know, ignoring the fact or pretending that you might have some kind of special squad that doesn't have anyone who's colour blind in it is just fooling themselves, fooling themselves. So you know, you know how many colour blind people are out there and you know what the implications are. It's just I think it's wilful, deciding that you don't need to do it, because you can find an excuse not to do so from a playing point of view.
I think that this particular Ireland v South Africa game is going to be quite interesting because I'm not colour blind and even to me those colours are too similar because of the shades of colours that they're using. I don't think this is only going to be a colour blind person's nightmare kit clash. So it sort of heightens awareness of what it's like if you're colour blind for the red-green kit clashes - and it's easy to solve it! It's just light against dark.
In the Six Nations, what makes me really angry is that it's OK to wear a white kit if you're France or Italy playing each other or Scotland, all of those three playing each other. The home team always wears white because everyone knows that's a kit clash and it's accepted. But if we also know it's a kit clash if Wales, play Ireland - then the home team should also be wearing white. It's a no brainer."
SEE ALSO: 'Softies' Ireland And Their Recent Excellent Home Record Against South Africa
