Does anybody else think this is a bit too far ???

So in 2027 Wales and Ireland will not be allowed to where their traditional red and green jerseys whilst they are playing each other to help people who are colour blind. Now I am all for helping the afflicted and the what not, but does this really impact on people watching a game of rugby ?

Please, I am happy for people to point out where I need educating on this, so please feel free. Is this now going to happen in snooker, where they will either have to change the cloth or the red balls ?

I'm sorry, but I am very perplexed with this. It's WOL so if you do not want to click on the link, you do not have to, but I will copy and paste the article for others to read:-

https://www.walesonline.co.uk/sport/rugby/rugby-news/world-rugby-ban-red-green-21778704

Wales and Ireland to be banned from wearing red and green against each other
Kit changes are incoming for teams who play in red or green as World Rugby seeks to help the eight per cent of fans who have some form of colour blindness

Wales and Ireland will be banned from playing each other in their traditional colours, with rugby lawmakers planning to introduce a rule change as a means to help colour blind supporters.

The change will be implemented for the 2027 Rugby World Cup, where red-green kit clashes will be banned to aid those who find it difficult to identify and distinguish between the colours.

Red-green colour blindness is the most common form of the condition and, according to the NHS, affects around one in 12 men and one in 200 women.

Of all the fixtures which will be affected by the change, the clash between Six Nations rivals Wales and Ireland is the most obvious.

Marc Douglas, a qualified engineer who serves as research turf and equipment manager for World Rugby, told i about the importance of engaging those supporters who struggle with colour blindness.

"From our perspective, if you’re potentially limiting eight per cent of your male audience, that’s a huge huge number of people who are suddenly switching off," he said.

The change will not only improve the experience for the thousands of fans either attending games or watching from home, but it will also aid players who are colour blind.

Colour Blind Awareness founder Kathryn Albany-Ward said Euro 2020 was "really good for colour blind people" and raising awareness, but World Rugby is taking action to alter its laws and effect change.

"Hopefully by the time Rugby World Cup 2027 comes round, this is the norm," added Douglas.

"An awful lot of people don’t realise that they’re colour blind because they see what they see day to day and they don’t know that people see any different.

"We’ve identified quite a few areas that we can be much better at."

There is hope that by implementing the change at World Cup level, rugby union may come to adopt the policy at all levels.

As yet though, there is no such plan in place for the 2022 Six Nations, given the tournament is run by a separate organisation.

What do you all think about this ?

I think just one of Wales OR Ireland will need to change their kit to their away one whilst playing each other. No biggie.

The Oracle wrote:I think just one of Wales OR Ireland will need to change their kit to their away one whilst playing each other.  No biggie.

Would the red Welsh jersey clash with the green grass ?

I'm sure most people can differentiate between what is grass and what is a human being?

I read this as a positive. Not something I've considered despite working for a manager once who required this taking into account. Good on them for me, not a biggy given it gives them the chance to showcase some more shirts to sell.

I see no issue with this.

Yes its ridiculous. how many years has this not been an issue. Whats next??????

LordDowlais wrote:

The Oracle wrote:I think just one of Wales OR Ireland will need to change their kit to their away one whilst playing each other.  No biggie.

Would the red Welsh jersey clash with the green grass ?

Why do you do this to yourself?!

The Oracle wrote:

LordDowlais wrote:

The Oracle wrote:I think just one of Wales OR Ireland will need to change their kit to their away one whilst playing each other.  No biggie.

Would the red Welsh jersey clash with the green grass ?

 Why do you do this to yourself?!

What ?

They are saying that Wales red jersey will clash with Irelands green jerseys, why wouldn't they clash with the grass thats the same colour ? I reckon this all could be sorted by changing the colour of their shorts. Put black socks and shorts on one of the teams, but let them keep to colours that represent them. There lots of different types of colour blindness, which I full am sympathetic to, but where will it end ?

Before long we will just have two colour jerseys for anyone.

'Before long we will just have two colour jerseys for anyone.'

No. We won't.

TightHEAD wrote:Yes its ridiculous. how many years has this not been an issue. Whats next??????

It's not an issue for most people but it is an issue for a large group of people. I know someone who stopped watching some matches because of it.

Even people that are not colour blind often complain about matches where jerseys clash, we had it during the first test of Australia vs Argentina.

When SA plays Ireland one of the two teams wear a white jersey, there is no issue with it.

LordDowlais wrote:

The Oracle wrote:

LordDowlais wrote:

The Oracle wrote:I think just one of Wales OR Ireland will need to change their kit to their away one whilst playing each other.  No biggie.

Would the red Welsh jersey clash with the green grass ?

 Why do you do this to yourself?!

What ?

They are saying that Wales red jersey will clash with Irelands green jerseys, why wouldn't they clash with the grass thats the same colour ? I reckon this all could be sorted by changing the colour of their shorts. Put black socks and shorts on one of the teams, but let them keep to colours that represent them. There lots of different types of colour blindness, which I full am sympathetic to, but where will it end ?

Before long we will just have two colour jerseys for anyone.

It might clash with the grass if they were playing statues or lying down playing dead. But they are moving, so not an issue. People who suffer with red/green colour blindness (8% of rugby fans according to the article) can’t differentiate between the two teams if one is wearing red and one wearing green as they see them as the same colour. So 30 players seemingly on the same team. They can differentiate between stationary grass which is lying there doing nothing and a human who is moving and has a head and legs attached to the jersey.

How many clashes are there between a team in red and a team in green at International level? 2 per year perhaps? Not hard to change a strip for that. Might actually justify the existence of the Wales change strips then, and perhaps even shift a few more units in the shops.

Anyone old enough to remember watching Wales v Ireland on black and white TV? At the time, the France kit was also a similar shade of grey, so three teams clashed to the TV audience, but no-one suggested change strips.

Not saying there isn't a reason for one side to use the change strip if it is going to make things easier for some spectators, but it seems odd that this is something that doesn't appear to have been a significant issue for decades.

Maybe time to adopt an NFL style policy of one team always wearing white and the other their home colours.

Is somebody deleting posts here?

I love the attitude of 'I'm ok, so let's not change to improve things for others'. Very Tory.

dummy_half wrote:Anyone old enough to remember watching Wales v Ireland on black and white TV? At the time, the France kit was also a similar shade of grey, so three teams clashed to the TV audience, but no-one suggested change strips.

Not saying there isn't a reason for one side to use the change strip if it is going to make things easier for some spectators, but it seems odd that this is something that doesn't appear to have been a significant issue for decades.

Maybe time to adopt an NFL style policy of one team always wearing white and the other their home colours.

I think that just shows that we've progressed over the years and are a bit more inclusive and conscious of accessibility now

For me it's just such a non-issue and such a small thing to do, especially as they have different colour strips just waiting in a cupboard to be used. They're not asking much.

PhilBB wrote:Is somebody deleting posts here?

I love the attitude of 'I'm ok, so let's not change to improve things for others'. Very Tory.

I did. I deleted a post yesterday, having a direct pop at you, so there has to be consistency.

This post is a bit more along the lines of what I would consider acceptable.

RiscaGame wrote:

PhilBB wrote:Is somebody deleting posts here?

I love the attitude of 'I'm ok, so let's not change to improve things for others'. Very Tory.

I did. I deleted a post yesterday, having a direct pop at you, so there has to be consistency.

This post is a bit more along the lines of what I would consider acceptable.

You don't need to delete such posts on my behalf.

I accept that you're pretty thick skinned, yes.

RiscaGame wrote:I accept that you're pretty thick skinned, yes.

True. But not as thick or as thick skinned as a Tory, in all fairness.

PhilBB wrote:

RiscaGame wrote:I accept that you're pretty thick skinned, yes.

True. But not as thick or as thick skinned as a Tory, in all fairness.

YAWN.....handbags at dawn time. This is a rugby site not 'insta'.

The obvious solution is that Wales wear green and Ireland wear red?

Presumably the same thing happens when Wales play South Africa or Australia who also wear variations on green?

One side could wear an all black strip, it's not like anyone in world rugby (or a least a corner of it) would get worked up over that, is there?  

Yeah, shouldn't be an issue

Irish Londoner wrote:The obvious solution is that Wales wear green and Ireland wear red?

Presumably the same thing happens when Wales play South Africa or Australia who also wear variations on green?

One side could wear an all black strip, it's not like anyone in world rugby (or a least a corner of it) would get worked up over that, is there?  

Haha! I remember a few years back Neath RFC in Wales, who have always been know as the Welsh All Blacks (for 123 years apparently, according to the link below), were told they'd need to go to court with New Zealand if they wanted to continue to use the nickname. Felt a bit pathetic to me at the time, and not really in the spirit of the game. I understand trademarks, etc. but who trademarks a colour?! Blues, All Whites (Swansea), etc. Just colours.

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2003/apr/15/rugbyunion.paulrees

I  believe that at one point Ralph Lauren wanted to trademark the words "Rugby" and "Rugby Shirt", but yes it was the Neath case along with the "outrage" when England wore an all black change strip at the RWC that I was thinking of.

Quite a bit of mileage out of a WOL article. All I read it as is the WRU want to get more matches where they can wear their away strip in order to boost jersey sales and knowing that their cabal will revolt against any change want to wrap it around a world rugby directive or political correctness to mask their motives.

thebandwagonsociety wrote:Quite a bit of mileage out of a WOL article. All I read it as is the WRU want to get more matches where they can wear their away strip in order to boost jersey sales and knowing that their cabal will revolt against any change want to wrap it around a world rugby directive or political correctness to mask their motives.

Hmmm. OK I'll bite: It's got nothing to do with Wales, apart from them wearing one of the colours in question. This has come from World Rugby (or IRB as I still think of them). Although I suspect you already knew that

dummy_half wrote:Anyone old enough to remember watching Wales v Ireland on black and white TV? At the time, the France kit was also a similar shade of grey, so three teams clashed to the TV audience, but no-one suggested change strips.

I remember watching Wales v Scotland in the 70s on a black and white TV, and the late great Bill McLaren saying "for those of you watching in black and white, Wales have white tops on their socks".. after 20 mins of playing in the mud, you couldn't see the whites tops on the socks anymore..

I can understand how it would be a problem for the colour blind viewer, but not for a rugby fan, as the are other tell tale signs, such as direction of play, as well as being to identify a player. But I guess it comes back to the old argument of making the 6 Nations more marketable to increase revenue.

Red / Green is a real problem for colour blind people. My son is, and he can have difficulty seeing the difference between the "colours" of the Welsh and Irish shirts, but as I said, as he understands the game, its not too difficult to know who is who. If he was just a 6 Nations follower, who so many are these days, then maybe not understanding the game, as we on this forum do, it may become problematic and hence lose interest.

Of course, unless Wales change their away shirt to another colour instead of the usual Green variant, its not going to help much in this fixture, apart from increasing the sales of away shirts... AHHHH, now the cynic in me would suggest that may be the REAL reason for this...

There are other ways to differentiate teams -
But black hoops on one jersey and a diagonal one on the other.
One team could have the old Tigers Lettering instead of numbers.
Make the sponsorship logos bigger on the jerseys.

All could be incorporated into the kit design that would allow the core national colours to be retained.

Why don't we also remove tackling for those offended by conflict and kicking for those offended by violence against inanimate objects. Anthems should be stopped before games as its unnecessary and tasteless expression fo nationalism. Also running on grass is quite detrimental to the polar bears.  Together with heavy breathing too much C02. Use of red card may cause PTS too (ignorantly assuming people can distinguish red from yellow) And scoring more points, we should definitely not encourage that as its going to make Gen Z cry.

Cue outpouring of offended

Lol. How insecure.

Pie wrote:Why don't we also remove tackling for those offended by conflict and kicking for those offended by violence against inanimate objects. Anthems should be stopped before games as its unnecessary and tasteless expression fo nationalism. Also running on grass is quite detrimental to the polar bears.  Together with heavy breathing too much C02. Use of red card may cause PTS too (ignorantly assuming people can distinguish red from yellow)  And scoring more points, we should definitely not encourage that as its going to make Gen Z cry.

Cue outpouring of offended

What a c0ck womble.

This isn’t about being PC! It’s about accessibility. I bet you complained when they put in wheelchair ramps at the Millennium Stadium. “I can climb the stairs just fine, so f**k anyone else who can’t”. Not really in the spirit of rugby, are you? Following the wrong sport I think.

Interesting decision. Seems a bit much but I’m not bothered. Guess one of the teams may feel they had to compromise something each time they are forced to change strip. Hope the colourblind people aren’t victimised if the team loses and the non-colourblind people blame them directly for the enforced change of traditional strip causing the loss (I know, it’s irrational to think that, but some fans are dumb and grasp at straws).

The Oracle wrote:

LordDowlais wrote:

The Oracle wrote:

LordDowlais wrote:

The Oracle wrote:I think just one of Wales OR Ireland will need to change their kit to their away one whilst playing each other.  No biggie.

Would the red Welsh jersey clash with the green grass ?

 Why do you do this to yourself?!

What ?

They are saying that Wales red jersey will clash with Irelands green jerseys, why wouldn't they clash with the grass thats the same colour ? I reckon this all could be sorted by changing the colour of their shorts. Put black socks and shorts on one of the teams, but let them keep to colours that represent them. There lots of different types of colour blindness, which I full am sympathetic to, but where will it end ?

Before long we will just have two colour jerseys for anyone.

It might clash with the grass if they were playing statues or lying down playing dead.  But they are moving, so not an issue.  People who suffer with red/green colour blindness (8% of rugby fans according to the article) can’t differentiate between the two teams if one is wearing red and one wearing green as they see them as the same colour.  So 30 players seemingly on the same team.  They can differentiate between stationary grass which is lying there doing nothing and a human who is moving and has a head and legs attached to the jersey.

How many clashes are there between a team in red and a team in green at International level?  2 per year perhaps?  Not hard to change a strip for that.  Might actually justify the existence of the Wales change strips then, and perhaps even shift a few more units in the shops.

I'm quite surprised this is so high as I read somewhere recently that around only 5% of people are affected with colour blindness and then they are varying levels within that 5%, maybe I misread.

Whatever the % is, I find it quite difficult to be that angry with this, does it really matter?

Sgt_Pooly wrote:

The Oracle wrote:

LordDowlais wrote:

The Oracle wrote:

LordDowlais wrote:

The Oracle wrote:I think just one of Wales OR Ireland will need to change their kit to their away one whilst playing each other.  No biggie.

Would the red Welsh jersey clash with the green grass ?

 Why do you do this to yourself?!

What ?

They are saying that Wales red jersey will clash with Irelands green jerseys, why wouldn't they clash with the grass thats the same colour ? I reckon this all could be sorted by changing the colour of their shorts. Put black socks and shorts on one of the teams, but let them keep to colours that represent them. There lots of different types of colour blindness, which I full am sympathetic to, but where will it end ?

Before long we will just have two colour jerseys for anyone.

It might clash with the grass if they were playing statues or lying down playing dead.  But they are moving, so not an issue.  People who suffer with red/green colour blindness (8% of rugby fans according to the article) can’t differentiate between the two teams if one is wearing red and one wearing green as they see them as the same colour.  So 30 players seemingly on the same team.  They can differentiate between stationary grass which is lying there doing nothing and a human who is moving and has a head and legs attached to the jersey.

How many clashes are there between a team in red and a team in green at International level?  2 per year perhaps?  Not hard to change a strip for that.  Might actually justify the existence of the Wales change strips then, and perhaps even shift a few more units in the shops.

I'm quite surprised this is so high as I read somewhere recently that around only 5% of people are affected with colour blindness and then they are varying levels within that 5%, maybe I misread.

Whatever the % is, I find it quite difficult to be that angry with this, does it really matter?

Exactly. It probably only affects around 3 games in the whole international calendar a year. 3! So Ireland get to wear their white strip v Wales for a change. Or Wales get to wear their change strip (whatever colour it is now). Big deal! Don’t remember people moaning when we wore black against Japan or grey in one World Cup.

Colourblindness is 8% of all males but only 1 in 200 females.
That’s why you see different figures

My Dad was a colour blind rugby player and fan who never complained about the clashes or confusion. And yet now that I think back on how much he loved this sport I do wish that the shirts had been different so he could have enjoyed the matches more while he was alive. It isn’t a huge thing to ask.

For Ireland white shirts with green shorts make sense to me personally. Running out in grey or purple kits as they have done annoys me. There are a lot of ways to vary a kit while including the colours of your flag. So that would be my request to the WRU and IRFU, change the shirt but keep red/ green shirts and socks.

Intotouch wrote:My Dad was a colour blind rugby player and fan who never complained about the clashes or confusion. And yet now that I think back on how much he loved this sport I do wish that the shirts had been different so he could have enjoyed the matches more while he was alive. It isn’t a huge thing to ask.

For Ireland white shirts with green shorts make sense to me personally. Running out in grey or purple kits as they have done annoys me. There are a lot of ways to vary a kit while including the colours of your flag. So that would be my request to the WRU and IRFU, change the shirt but keep red/ green shirts and socks.

Ain't nothing wrong with a home and away strip. This is an easy win.