Say what you like about England's form but fashion-wise they are way ahead of the game. The Rugby Football Union has revealed that sales of the team's new purple strip have outstripped all previous records, a tribute to the vision of their kit designers or, depending on your sartorial taste, the collective colour-blindness of Twickenham supporters.
Whatever the truth, a remarkable 41% of replica shirts sold during the autumn internationals were purple as opposed to the traditional white. The normal figure for away shirts is around 15%.
England have worn the new colour only once, turning in a truly dismal display against Argentina last month, but the strip seems to have captured the public imagination, with nearly 70% of all shirt sales at Twickenham on that day of the purple strip. "It's an all-time record," confirmed Francis Baron, the RFU's chief executive. "It's been a great commercial success and our customers are very happy."
In the past, England have explored blue and red change kits, despite the inconvenient fact their white jerseys do not clash with any of their major rivals. Sales of around 8,000 purple shirts inside a month would suggest, however, that mauve is here to stay. Typically, the RFU would have expected to sell about 3,000 of the change kit in the same period.
The traditional white kit still remains the most popular, with some 11,500 replica jerseys sold, although the RFU is expecting a Christmas rush on purple.
The experiment, however, has also prompted an official RFU apology to fans at the Pumas game who were asked to hold purple cards in the air before kick-off. As they did so, a well-known kit company's logo was picked out in white amid a sea of violet, a notably crass piece of ambush marketing. "They got it wrong and it will not be allowed to happen again," said Baron.
Meanwhile, the RFU, will also be lobbying the government to review the decision to include Wales's home and away Six Nations games among the crown jewel sporting events which have to be broadcast on free-to-air television. "Extending the number of listed events could impact quite badly on the finances of sport," said Baron. "We have real concerns that it will have a significant negative effect."
