England will be forced to use the away dressing room and will not wear their traditional white strip when they kick off their Rugby World Cup campaign against Fiji in a fortnight’s time. Instead the Fijians will be the side clad in white jerseys and will also occupy their hosts’ preferred changing room at Twickenham.
Having lost the preliminary coin toss, England will be required to wear their alternative red strip for the tournament’s opening fixture, an early dent to their desire to maximise home advantage as tournament hosts. Ireland, as a result, have been allocated the home dressing room for Saturday’s warm-up match to ensure Stuart Lancaster’s squad players are wholly accustomed to the away facilities before the Fiji game.
Tournament organisers remain adamant that, technically, there are no home and away teams at a World Cup and England, despite being the host nation, will not be permitted to enjoy all their customary home comforts. They will, however, wear white against both Wales and Australia and will also be back in their usual dressing room for both of those key Pool A fixtures.
Wearing red did England’s footballers no harm when they hosted the 1966 World Cup but Lancaster has made no secret of the fact he wants his team to play in white as often as possible. He has advised the Rugby Football Union’s commercial department he does not want to see a repeat of the “purple nasty” strips the national team have worn in the past and has insisted the team wear only white or, if absolutely necessary, red jerseys to reflect their pride in representing the flag of St George.
The decision to give Ireland the home dressing room this weekend was made on the advice of Matt Parker, the RFU’s head of athletic performance. He was one of the men behind the marginal gains strategy that helped British cycling to unprecedented success and also propelled Bradley Wiggins to Olympic gold. His attention to detail is such that England’s replacements will even sit on the opposite side of the tunnel to their usual place on Saturday, to ensure absolutely nothing comes as a surprise during the Fiji game.
England’s other Pool A game on 10 October in Manchester may also pose a few potential diplomatic issues on the kit front. Wearing red would hardly displease the locals at Old Trafford but next month’s fixture is being staged at Manchester City’s Etihad Stadium. Light blue just happens to be the colour traditionally favoured by England’s opponents Uruguay.
