Rugby World Cup 2023: Kit Overview

The 2023 Rugby World Cup held in France ended with South Africa taking a record 4th Title with an 12-11 Victory against New Zealand.

The tournament was held between 8th September and 28th October 2023, with 20 teams playing in total of 48 games during 7 week Tournament.

I shared some regular updates on the Kits used during the competition, but wanted to consildate this in one place for your perusal.

Overall Kit Stats:

20 Teams
37 Kits worn in the Tournament
2 Teams in 3 Kits
13 Teams in 2 Kits
5 Teams in just the 1 Kit

Pool Stage, there were four Pools containg Five Nations, with the Top Two Nations moving to the Knock-Out Stages.

Pool Fixtures Overview

Knock-Out Rounds

Knock-Out Rounds, this consisted of Quarter-Finals, Semi-Finals, 3rd / 4th Place Playoff and of course the final, so a total of eight fixtures in the final stages of the Tournament.

Quarter-Finals

Semi-Finals / 3rd & 4th Place / Final

Looking at the Nations in more detail, I will look at each Pool and the Kits worn by the Nations here!

Pool A

Pool A provided four Nations with Blue as their Primary Colour and New Zealand in their traditional “All Black” look, so there was plenty of Alternative Kits on show from this group, with a total of 9 Kits seen in the Pool Stage here.

Uruguay and Italy both used their Alternative Kit in 3 of their 4 Pool Matches, with Namibia using their two kits twice each and Tournament Hosts France only using their Alternative Kit once, in the opening game of the Competition against New Zealand.

New Zealand who reached the final ended playing all seven of their games in their Primary All Black Kit

Pool B

Pool B provided the most Kits used in the Pool Stage, with a total of 10 Kits used by the Nations here.

South Africa were one of two teams to use three kits through the tournament, and the only Nation to use three different shirts, with their Alternative Shirt deemed to contain too much green when they played Ireland, this also meant they wore three different kits in their opening three games.

Ireland, Romania and Tonga all wore two kits in total, with their Primary used three times and their alternative kit worn just the once.

Scotland the other team in the group only appeared in their Primary kit, unusual as even in the 6 Nations Tournament they are one of three teams who play in Blue but with Pool A taking a large portion of the teams in Blue meant it was only the Primary Kit this time around for the Scots.

Pool C

Pool C was another Pool with 9 Kits used, however only 8 were used in the Pool Stage with Fiji being the only Nation to use a kit in the Knock-out Stages that was not previously used in the Pool Stage, with their Alternative Kit used in the Quarter-Final game against England.

Along with Fiji, Georgia, Portugal and Wales all used two kits, with Georgia and Portugal going with Primary and Alternative kits in two games each and Wales just the once in their game againt Portugal.

Australia were one of the five Nations to use just their Primary Kit after failing to progress from the Pool Stage.

Pool D

The final Pool, Pool D was one of the most interesting in terms of kits used.

In total their were 9 Kits used by the Nations here, however it was the only Pool that had two Nations that used just the one Kit, with Chile and Japan playing their four Pool games in their Primary Kits.

Argentina and Samoa would use both Primary and Alternative Kits in their Pool matches, with Argentina also using their alternative kit in a later game (we will come on to that below).

England however were the second team in the Tournament to use three different Kit Looks, this one being a little more subtle than the South Africans, as the Alternative red socks were used with the Primary shirts / shorts to create the only Kit Mash up of the competition, this look was used twice, once in the Pool game against Samoa and then in their second meeting against Argentina in the 3rd / 4th Placed Play-Off.

Kit Highlights

As mentioned there were two teams that used three different kits in the tournament:

South Africa Kits – Primary worn 5 times, Alternative worn 1 time and White Alternative shirt worn 1

England Kits – Primary Kit worn 3 times, Alternative Kit worn 2 times and Primary / Alternative socks worn 2 times

Argentina v England – The two nations met twice in the Tournament, in their opening game in Pool D and then in the 3rd / 4th Place Playoff game, so their final game of the tournament, each game game was played in different kits….