Ranked: The best and worst of the international rugby jerseys as Springboks ‘terrify’ while ‘bland’ Castore unravels like England

James While

03 Nov 2026 11:07 AM

How do France and England fare in our ranked list?

With the November window of the Nations Championship starting this weekend, Planet Rugby has run the rule over all 12 playing kits, scoring each for fear, fashion, cultural fidelity, build quality and what the team has actually won in it. France top the pile and England, brace yourselves, prop up the table.

The top line

Everybody has an opinion on a rugby shirt, usually a firmer one than they have on the breakdown law, so we thought we’d settle it. Each side has been marked out of ten on five measures: fear factor, which is whether the shirt looks like trouble coming down the tunnel; fashion factor, which is whether you’d wear it anywhere other than the ground; cultural fidelity, which is how faithfully it honours the badge and the history; build quality; and track record, which is the side’s Test win rate since its current kit supplier signed up, with a bonus point for a major trophy won in that spell.

Add the five together, turn it into a percentage and you get a tier, from S at 85 per cent and above down to D below 40. One side got a D, and you won’t need long to guess which, and it’s worth noting before we start that two nations are dressed by Castore and that you’ll find both of them at the bottom.

12th: England (Castore)

White is the worst colour going if you’re built like a prop, and England’s front-row have spent most of 2026 avoiding mirrors, which is understandable given what the Six Nations held up to them: one win from five, Italy’s first ever victory over England in Rome and Ireland’s record score at Twickenham. Castore and England have a fair bit in common, not least a reputation for coming apart at the seams under pressure; the brand’s football shirts have torn mid-match at more than one club, and England’s championship unravelled in much the same way, from the moment the first thread was pulled.

White is also as bland as the game plan, and nobody wears it on a night out other than supermodels, gammons in Benidorm and Prince Harry, and we’ve yet to see a supermodel in the West Car Park. The cultural fidelity mark only survives because it’s boring, so it fits. 10 wins from 15 Tests in Castore isn’t too bad, but it isn’t great either, and the only England side to win anything in the new kit were the Red Roses, whose home World Cup shirt you couldn’t buy in the shops after a Castore supply chain error. That’s a D, and the only one on the table.

11th: Australia (Castore)

Every manufacturer Australia have ever had has tried to turn a shade of yellow into gold, mostly without success, and Castore’s first effort, launched as “a New Dawn” when they took over from Asics in January, has finally pulled it off. It’s still not something you’d wear down the pub, unless the pub’s a Walkabout. The First Nations jersey is a really nice touch, though, and earns its marks.

Five wins from ten in Castore includes 42-38 over the Springboks in Perth and a first ever series win in Argentina, followed by 93 points conceded in two Bledisloe Tests. They’ve won two World Cups in gold, mind you, so you never count them out, and it’s the same in the wardrobe, where you’d never quite rule out wearing it.

10th: Ireland (Canterbury)

For those of us who remember Ireland of old, the modern kit comes in a very strange shade of green; the 2023 World Cup shirt was mocked for looking washed out, and last season’s was officially “Cadmium Green”, which sounds like something you’d keep under the sink. It’s beautifully made, mind, and fits the players well.

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The fear factor stops at the last eight, because that’s as far as it goes, and Canterbury have now dressed Ireland for three World Cup quarter-final exits. Green rather limits what you can wear with it, although if you’ve got red hair it’s a perfect match. Four Six Nations titles and two Grand Slams in Canterbury is a fine return, but halfway through every World Cup the shirts go in the bargain bin.

9th: Wales (Macron)

Culturally the Welsh kit is absolutely wonderful, with the dragon repeated across the shoulders and sleeves, another embossed on the lower back, and a launch at the National Eisteddfod, which is about as Welsh as a shirt launch gets. Unfortunately, the team haven’t been as red hot as the jersey for some time. If you’re Welsh you’ve got one in your wardrobe, and that’s kind of the law; the alternate is inspired by Welsh slate, which Macron liked so much it gave Wrexham a slate shirt as well.

As for the track record, the less said the better. Wales won the 2021 Six Nations in their first Macron season and have since collected three wooden spoons in a row, lost 43-0 to South Africa this summer and, at the 2023 World Cup, watched the numbers peel off their backs during a quarter-final, although the WRU blamed the printer.

8th: Fiji (Umbro)

Fiji play like the Barbarians, and the white shirt suits rugby played as if nobody’s told them about defensive systems. If you’re a neutral, there’s a Fiji shirt in your wardrobe somewhere, and the palm on the chest is as iconic as any emblem in the game. Build quality takes a knock because the numbers came off during the 2025 Pacific Nations Cup final, although Fiji Rugby blamed the printer in Salt Lake City rather than Umbro.

They’re Fiji, so the track record either flies or crashes. In the space of a year they’ve beaten Scotland 29-14 and lost 73-8 to England, and their “home” Tests this summer were played in Cardiff, Liverpool and Edinburgh.

7th: Scotland (Macron)

It’s a really, really nice kit, and quite snazzy and innovative, just like Scottish rugby, which put 50 points on the eventual champions France this year and still finished third. Navy goes with everything, which is handy, because every man in Scotland already owns a navy jumper. Last season’s purple collar nodded to the heather on the moors, and this season’s tone-on-tone antler pattern comes straight out of Monarch of the Glen.

13 years of Macron haven’t brought a Six Nations title, and it’s Scotland, so nobody notices unless they’re playing England, but they won the Calcutta Cup back this year, and in Edinburgh that’s worth rather more.

6th: Japan (Canterbury)

A theme is emerging here, because we like hoops, and Japan’s red and white are a classic, even if the current shirt swaps them for red styling taken from kabuki face paint. The kit is made in Japan by Goldwin under Canterbury’s licence and it’s super accurate in the way it’s delivered, just like the rugby. Horizontal stripes aren’t kind to chunky people, yet Japan’s is the shirt everybody loves.

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It’s said the players don’t much care for the Brave Blossoms tag, because they think they’re better than that, but the cherry blossom on the breast is lovely. Be fearful, because they spring surprises; ask South Africa about Brighton in 2015, or Ireland and Scotland about 2019. Getting hold of one in Britain, mind, requires a flight to Tokyo.

5th: Argentina (Le Coq Sportif)

A masterclass in iconic fashion, and the sky-blue and white hoops make one of the loveliest jumpers going; if you’re a neutral, you’ve got an Argentina one. In July the Pumas walked out against England in a replica of Maradona’s blue 1986 shirt, made by Le Coq Sportif just like the original, a work of art in two shades of blue with a gold crest, but this time nobody got away with using their hand and England won 31-24.

They left Nike for Le Coq Sportif in February 2024, nine months before the company went into receivership, which takes some timing. 12 wins from 30 in the new kit doesn’t sound much, but like their shirts, they punch well above their weight.

Equal 3rd: Italy (Macron)

Sergio Parisse, Italy’s new forwards coach and an all-round rugby icon, would look like a god on Instagram wearing a tea bag, but the latest Italy kit is absolutely fantastic in its own right as the Parissegram proves, a wonderful shade of azzurro with a Futurist geometric print. It’s Italy, so it’s a Ferrari: it goes like stink for 20 minutes and then breaks down, which suits a shirt with “La Potenza e la Velocità” (power and speed) printed inside the collar. Fashion factor? Milan Fashion Week.

Nobody’s ever quite understood why the flag is green, white and red and the team play in blue, but the blue belonged to the House of Savoy and has been the colour of Italian sport ever since. Twenty-seven wins from 96 Tests in Macron includes a first ever win over England, 23-18 in Rome this year, followed in July by a 57-10 defeat to Australia in Perth.

Equal 3rd: South Africa (Nike)

Green and gold with a Springbok on the chest; it terrifies you. For the All Blacks series Nike printed the anthem, Nkosi Sikelel’ iAfrika, in all five of its languages in the shape of the flag, which is a neat picture of the Rainbow Nation and of the broader, more colourful game Rassie Erasmus has been building. Green rather limits the fashion options, but the training kit, with its gold zigzag and a supermarket logo in red, white and blue, is wonderful if you like your kit loud.

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Build quality is top drawer, it’s Nike. Track record? Seriously? Four World Cups, the most of anyone, the latest of them in Nike alongside two Rugby Championships and 41 wins from 49 Tests, and they opened that 2023 tournament in a blue shirt their own fans compared to mouthwash and still won the thing.

2nd: New Zealand (Adidas)

There’s a theory that black makes a side look meaner, and the research backs it, since teams in black get penalised more and judged more aggressive. Nobody’s ever needed a study to be frightened of that jersey, but the fear mark drops a touch this year, because a side that lost to England in November and then lost a series 3-1 in South Africa can’t claim to be the most muscular thing in the game.

If you want to look cool, you wear black, end of story. The All Blacks speaks for itself, Adidas build it wonderfully, and the track record is 283 wins from 349 Tests since the partnership began in 1999, with two World Cups and 18 southern hemisphere titles along the way.

1st: France (Adidas)

Everybody knows France play better in Adidas. The three stripes dressed them for the first World Cup final in 1987, and since the brand came back in 2024 they’ve won two Six Nations titles in a row. In between came Le Coq Sportif, whose spell included two World Cup quarter-finals lost by a single point, the second at France’s own World Cup in 2023, before the company was taken to court by the French federation over €5.3m in unpaid royalties and went into receivership, rather like French hopes that October.

Fashion factor: cool as. The 1906 replica Adidas made for the 120th anniversary of the Crunch sold out in under 24 hours, and France beat England 48-46 in it to win the championship. It’s got the tricolour on the collar, of course it has, and it’s Adidas, so it’s beautifully made. The FFR liked it enough to extend the deal to 2036.

The final table

Argentina