The Singapore Rugby Union recently announced a new jersey for the national team. Singapore, with red and white in its national flag, will now wear…black.
This has incensed somebody enough to start – you guessed it – a Facebook group. The group is called, awkwardly, but succintly: “Bring back the red, white and orchid in the Singapore Rugby Jersey.”
Writes the creator of the group, Mark Lee: “14 August 2008 – the day Singapore Rugby ripped its heart out and lost its soul. Yes, its a new dawn with a fantastic new relationship between Singapore Rugby and Guinness. Brilliant as it gives Singapore Rugby the profile it needs and truly deserves. But the tangible implications has saddened me greatly as a Singaporean and someone who used to represent the state colours. Why? Sure it looks great, but this will be the first ever Singapore national sports team of any sort that will be donning black and white which is a massive step away from the traditional state colours of red and white.”
He goes on: “Our national team is not a Nascar vehicle having Mountain Dew colours but one that has an identity of its own. We used to be called the Singapore Reds but i guess we’re going to be called the Singapore Blacks with a nice creamy white head.”
The national flower, the Vanda Miss Joaquim, was also removed from the jersey, leading to one member of the group with a profound affinity for the jilted Vanda to wax eloquently: “The jersey can do but KEEP THE ******* FLOWER!”
Which led us to this exercise in imagination: what if Ribena, Old Chang Kee, Milo, Tiger Airways or Sanrio became next year’s sponsors?
So what do you think?
REDpoll
Feel free to share your opinion via the poll. Multiple answers possible.
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Then Who the are you then?
Dear rugger, So u disagree with me that all the teams have done poorly? Ok, so I was semi- mistaken about the women’s 15s. The sevens team did horribly though. As for men and age-groups; horrible.
Btw, how do you know I’m not in the team? You don’t even know who I am. You have no idea what you are talking about when it comes to the way SRU, excuse me, Singapore Rugby is run. They are funded in the millions of dollars by Singapore Sports Council and Sponsors. That’s a lot of money kid. I’m sure a lot more can be done.
Back to the Rugby, just because you train hard doesn’t mean that you deserve a pat on the back. Results. That’s what matters.
to The Devil:
for your info, if u have not read up the singapore women’s rugby website, singapore came in 4th in the ARFU Women’s XV Championships 2008. how then can u say that they have done extremely poorly? i have seen those ladies and gents train. you are not even in the team, you have got no right to criticize our players like that. even ruggers who are playing at the world rugby cup do not say this. you should be the one who is absolutely shameful. singapore has not in any ways contributed much to rugby. they have been spending most of it on table tennis and swimming. so, get ur stuff right before shooting off.
Jeremy: if the Mr Chan you’re referring to is Dr Chan then fyi it’s now Mr Low (of Singapore Sailing fame)…
Paul: It’s not a rumour Mark Lee is indeed in the Singapore Squad preparing for ARFU. He’s still committed to representing our nation (and this has never been in question), he’s just upset at the loss of our rugby heritage.
Hi All,
The mens team this year has the ARFU to look forward to – they are looking to get promoted a division this year.
Rumour has it that Mark Lee is in the squad that is training for the tournament in Dec, and is a high chance of making a return to the starting team- so the question here is will he wear the ‘black’ if selected or decline? Food for thought right?
My personal view, as someone who has donned a multitude of colors for his country due to the business of sport, is that at the end of the day, its the national jersey no matter the colour, the logo or even the material. You are representing you country and that is that. New jersey designs are always being rolled out, I remember the Aussie jersey some seasons ago by Reebok was called ‘Volcano vomit’ when it was revamped. Yet 3 revamps later, the Jersey is back to the original Gold with some green.So ultimately it will come full circle!
The color doesn’t matter. The quality of the team does. Sadly the teams representing Singapore this year (from age groups all the way to National Team and Women’s) have done extremely poorly. I think it’s been the worst since 1997. Absolutely shameful. All the money spent on the Academy and they produce nothing. What happened to Phil Greening? Didn’t he coach Spore last year? Is he still around?
i think wat rugger said is true.. he isnt giving respect to singapore rugby. but then again, black will be nice. but then they shld at least include the flower and singapore flag. after all, we play for singapore.
its nice and in order to be fair they should have both colour black and red home and away … better
The idea for the other jerseys came to me cos I used to work in asia pacific breweries (which now distributes and markets guinness).
I worked for tiger beer, and we used to ask for everything and anything that we sponsored to reflect the tiger colour scheme.
Of course we were over the top but we worked on the principle of, “Just ask for everything” and then see what we could get away.
So it’s up to the sponsored party to say yes or no to a sponsor’s request.
Looks like the Guinness boys managed to get their black and white jersey. The SRU website too looks like a Guinness website.
So from the point of view of Guinness, they got what they wanted.
I asked for the other designs as a parody of what sponsors will always want if they can get away with it.
anyway my final comment, good luck to the campaigne, my last question would be, why no one at SRU explained their decision? Changing national colors should not be a one person decision. and does mr chan realises what he has done?
saw mark’s posting. Guys, it makes sense. If you started in playing for schools, the first goal was to make it to the school team. Imagine ACS in White Green, or Raffles in Blue gold, or Saints in red blue, SJI in black yellow? Obviously if you haven’t noticed what you were wearing, you are obviously not playing rugby.
Then you progress to combine schools.
Combine schools T-shirt was White with red, the jersey was red white, then you move on to junior national and it was red white jerseys. then when u move up to full national team colours which was red white with the national flower but now due to a sponsor, the team became a lion and its black white? If sanrio were to sponsor Raffles Rugby Team, and turned their jerseys to Pink with a little cat, I think the ORA will be up in arms or u can replace the tiger at the saints badge with a pig or something if Bee chun heng sponsors.
U guys geddit? its not truely about the jersey but its donning the right colours for the team with the right image… if singapore Blacks were to wear red jerseys, it wouldn’t make sense
Jun Wei, I feel you should not respond so defensively to such a comment. It is to a certain point disrespectful and you yourself should acknowledge that. No apologies were requested but only a warped mind like yours could think it was neccesary
Dudes, there’s is still a red and white one, more white though, but still red and white. Yeah!
Can look it up at http://www.singaporerugby.com/
The photos are now in gif! But the LOGO! So now calling just to get the Orchid Back?
hmm, on the flip side if no one buys their jerseys, the sponsors will lose money and pull out off the sponsorship.
then s’pore rugby is in deep trouble !
UNSUSCRIBE
Rugger, I’m not going to apologise for the designs. We are merely trying to prove our point at how the Singapore Rugby jersey might change, or even morph into exorbitant creations which no longer stay true to Singapore. By making the jersey black, who knows what other colours the sponsors will change the jersey to next?
No respect to Singapore rugby? Why don’t you say that to Guinness when they changed the colour of the jersey? Mind you, the designers didn’t even bother to have the Singapore flag on the jersey.
I think the pics Contributed by Lai Jun Wei , is not showing Respect to singapore Rugby.
I read through all the posts and think most here don’t comprehend the whole story.. Singapore Rugby has always been in Red and White. It has always been known as the Singapore Reds. Even when Anchor Beer sponsored us, the jersey was still Red. We were called the Singapore Anchor Reds. Our Flag is ours to own. Many have said Australia doesn’t have Green and Gold, New Zealand doesn’t have Black. (I’m sorry, they have a Union Jack on their flag. Anyone think about Fiji not having White and Black in their Flag?) Australia has Green and Gold due to the colours found on many species of Wattle (a native flower), namely, green foliage and golden inflorescences. While New Zealand has black from the Rugby team that first went to England. The reporters made a spelling error in the newspapers from All Backs to All Blacks. Since rugby is the national sport and since the All Blacks wear Black, it made sense for every other NZ team to use the colour.
Bring back the Red and White of our proud Nation! While you’re at it, put our flag on the sleeve too..
hmm.. true.
Well, lets hope if its black blue or pink, as long as it helps S’pore rugby.
Traditional color of our country, not jus the flag.