Dave T

It's interesting reading some of the Twitter comments. Plenty complaining it's a Saints away shirt - I didn't get that tbh, do Saints often have white away shirts, don't they often have light blue? Plenty complaining that it's a good Scotland shirt. Again, do Scotland tend to have white shirts, they have usually been blue bodies?

You think wrong. I work with marketing and brand every day in my job.

And your description is a deliberately over-complicated one. If you were describing the kit, you probably describe it as white, with blue shoulders and v's. Chevrons are very traditional on RL shirts.

I'd say its because its a major change. People are resistant to change. England, across most sports use white, blue red in various combinations, I don't see a major challenge with this kit being with and blue. I expect it'll sell well this year.

I suggest you don't know what a keyboard warrior is.

Go back to last years kit release. I guarantee the same people were slating it.

I'd be stunned if most RL fans give much consideration to branding and Web design etc. They'll either like the kit or won't. This isn't a normal forum. Most people haven't mentioned web presence etc.

Design covers everything on the shirt. People hated the George Cross. People hate a blue v. It's almost as though nothing would please people.

I have no issues with the kit. In fact I like it a lot, I think it should be the future of England kits. I think some of the criticism of it as a standalone kit is completely over the top. I do however agree with you around the Web presence and branding - and that is an example of us being cheap as a sport - if another sport had a radical change, they would have consistency right through, so I do accept that point. But the other sport point is relevant, because the examples I give are the FA, ECB, Nike and NB - all have far bigger brands than the RFL and Oxen, and they have been comfortable with changing colours. Implementation of this may be a fair challenge, but I think that's a given in RL at the moment. But as a kit, I think it's excellent and England will look great in the World Cup this year.

I think you'll find the correct response is...

Well no, I am taking what you say at face value. You are being critical that it is not recognisable as an England shirt, but your only change is adding red. Neither of the shirts you mocked up look like England RL shirts, something you are really critical of (it doesn't bother me). I'm really not sure what your criticism is, other than they've taken red out of the kit - something you have no issues with for other sports.

The cricket example is perfectly valid, I am referring to ODI form.

Christ.

Can i ask, when you say brand, do you just mean colour? Because that is nothing like. An England kit either.

Neither is the one you put on. It doesn't have to be. They have actively acknowledged that they have gone in a different direction.

England cricket colours were completely different. Dark blue and red vs light blue. England football went with light blue sleeves. I don't think having red white and blue branding across other merch and websites is going to be an issue for an England team.

It's a common thing that teams do. Obviously many people feel differently to you. Same exercise regarding the badge with the other kits I highlighted earlier in the thread. When a design is changed (which has been acknowledged here) that would always be the case. The George Cross has been lambasted here for years, branded a cheap Sports Direct chav kit. We now move into what is a more traditional RL design and fans are no happier.

I hope the warmup is treated with respect and we get a good crowd. Looking forward to it.

If the main complaint is that red is missing, I've provided a handful of examples of other sports doing the same on kits. Many of these are using world class brands, way stronger than ours and Oxen's.

I completely understand your point. However, there are many, many examples of other better run sports than us doing the same with secondary (and sometimes primary) colours, and it not being an issue. I respectfully suggest we are over thinking it. But ultimately, I just think it's a very nice shirt.

I guarantee if Oxen had released that kit people would be complaining. Without question.

If the complaint is a change in colours, fair enough, that is a personal thing, we've had the same colours for decades and people moaned. We've seen Cricket and football change colours, but people like what they like. There ain't much more to it than that. I think this is the best England kit I've seen since I started watching them in the 90s.

It's the reduction in white that I like. I'd be very happy if they stuck with white and blue (with or without red trimming). Predominantly white shirts are not my favourite, and I like the fact that this is very different from anything the union mob may wear. I think some of our past ones have been too similar to theirs.

To be fair, we have stuck with white with red for almost three decades, since the 1995 World Cup. Many of the kits had the George Cross. And guess what? Fans complained every time

They won't be on will they? I don't think they are in SL?