Much as we at rucked.com love our rugby, sometimes it can be, well, just a little bit rubbish…
What’s a bit rubbish about rugby – No.1 Skintight shirts
When you’re as ripped to bits as the rucked.com team, wearing a skintight replica rugby top isn’t a problem. In fact, it’s nice to give the ladies (and indeed some of the boys) a bit of a treat now and again – almost like a public duty if you like. But, for those not bench pressing 200kgs, today’s replica shirts aren’t perhaps the most flattering for the, erm, fuller-figured chap. In short, it’s not a good time to be fat.
With a whiff of World Cup marketing opportunities wafting through the air at the moment, the kit manufacturers have been falling over themselves to get the new strips on to the park, causing more then a few of the fat boys to glance nervously in the mirror. This year’s black, it seems, is skintight. Yes, just when we hoped this skintight nonsense would disappear after the last World Cup, it just gets worse! I guess the fact England were among the first to sport those paint-on kits and then promptly went and became the world champions probably gave the kit makers far too much encouragement.
But now, it’s no new thing to have a shirt that clings to you like rubber pants on a podgy swinger, so let’s stop the nonsense now. Nobody has an advantage because, quite frankly, all the kits are the bloody same aren’t they? All it means is that we foolish rugby fans can’t buy a shirt that looks the same as our heroes. Instead, we have a ‘special’ supporters jersey and so, in the same way kids can’t be sold replica shirts with alcoholic sponsors on – just in case they turn into raging alcoholics before they turn 18: that’s the power of sponsorship kids – we all look a bit naff. Rather than looking like our heroes, we look like somebody who has saved themselves a few quid and bought a shirt that has our country’s name written on it but is actually made by a different company and resembles a knock-off top from the market!
Which is why rucked.com is throwing it’s weight behind Portugal. Take a look at the picture above and you have a proper rugby player wearing a proper rugby shirt with pride. Portugal we salute you, you’ve made us feel like rugby players again. If you can wear a shirt like that, then you’re alright by us.
In the meantime, we plead once more to those wonderful kit-makers out there – stop this madness now. Come together in union, like a rugby kit makers Live Aid, and offer charity to the rugby fan who likes a pint or two. Ban skintight shirts forever. They’re not for us, they’re for footballers and people who like to display their nipple length in public. And that, just isn’t us...