Gareth Anscombe slams kit colour clash

Editor

Wales international Gareth Anscombe has slammed a clash of kit colours between Cardiff Blues and Glasgow Warriors in their Champions Cup encounter as a ‘disgrace’.

Both sides lined up in slightly different shades of blue which led to much confusion. And Anscombe, as well as Blues head coach John Mulvihill and Glasgow Warriors boss Dave Rennie, were scathing in their criticism of the tournament organisers.

“It was a disgrace, really,” Anscombe said, following the Blues’ 29-12 defeat at Cardiff Arms Park. “I don’t know who the guy’s job is to decide that, but he has got to face consequences for it. It was an out and out disgrace.

“It was sunny, and rugby is a hard enough game. I have never come across that in my eight years of playing rugby. Who is making those decisions?

“In a split second, it was tough to differentiate who was in your team. It’s a joke.

“We told the referee and the touch judges early on. They told us it was down to the home team to change jerseys, but I don’t think that’s fair. Glasgow should have been wearing a white jersey.

“We have a bit of a game-plan of who we run back at, and it got easier as the sun went down, but early on with the sun in your eyes, the jerseys looked the same to me. EPCR need to put their hand up for that.

“It’s a disgrace, and it has annoyed me. How, in this day and age, that has happened is bewildering to me. It should be one team in blue, one team in white, it’s not hard.”

Apparently, European Professional Club Rugby (EPCR) went through the usual procedure of analysing the ‘kit data’, but found there was no clash and the match could go ahead.

Rennie said: “The kit data gets sent in and they looked at the colours and said there was no clash. I’m not sure about that, and we would have been more than happy to bring our black (change) kit along.”

Mulvihill added: “We complained before the game about the jerseys. The jerseys were exactly the same colour.

“It would have been an absolute nightmare for the referee, an absolute nightmare for the assistant referees, and running into that sun in that first half the boys couldn’t differentiate who was their team-mate and who wasn’t.

“It was ridiculous. We asked if we could change jerseys at half-time, but it just didn’t happen.

“We showed the jersey before the game, so they knew it was going to be an issue. It is part of the competition rules that those jerseys are shown to the competition body – it should not have happened.

“What the learning is from this is that both teams need to bring both kits, then the referee can make a decision on it.”