Record breaking match captain Ryan Jones (who will lead Wales for the 33rd time), giant wing George North and youngsters Owen Williams – who starts at centre to win his third cap – and Hallam Amos who will make his international debut, took to twitter alongside squad captain Sam Warburton to reveal the kit after head coach Warren Gatland named his side to face the South Sea Islanders.
Last month the Welsh Rugby Union unveiled the new two year kit, which has been worn against South Africa and Argentina so far this series, with the help of national squad players and hundreds of fans on the Millennium Stadium pitch.
But its associated change strip has remained a closely guarded secret until now, with the players chosen to wear it for the first time given the chance to exclusively reveal its details to their many hundreds of thousands of twitter followers, closely followed by the WRU’s own reveal via social media.
@Hallam_Amos, who will make his international debut on the wing this Friday, told his 1,149 followers – a number which is sure to grow at an exponential rate as the Wales fans become more familiar with his prowess on the pitch – “Modelling the match day shirt for Friday with @Owilliams91, can’t wait to run out at the Millennium wearing it!!…”.
The ‘selfie’ is an ever growing social media phenomenon and was chosen by the WRU as its main method of revealing the new kit after being anointed by Oxford Dictionaries’ editors as the word of the year due to its 17,000% increase in usage.
“The Welsh national jersey has always been a direct link between the players and the fans and so we thought what better way than for the players to, on the day they are announced to play for Wales, to reveal the kit to their own personal followers,” said the WRU’s head of marketing Craig Maxwell.
“The kit images have literally gone viral this afternoon and we have achieved the kind of instant cut through for the jersey that is only possible via social media.
“There are hundreds of thousands of Wales fans who follow the players and the WRU loyally throughout the year, so it has been great to be able to give them something exclusive.”
The ‘graphite’ playing kit will run alongside the new red Wales kit, in that it will now be in use at appropriate times right up until final preparations begin for RWC 2015, ensuring the new jerseys can be a ‘two-season’ look for fans.
The kit is available to purchase from tomorrow (Wednesday) and is available online at www.wru.co.uk/shop (priced at £79.99 Authentic, £49.99 Replica and £39.99 Youth) as well as all the usual stockists.
Alongside the graphite jersey, the kit features shorts (£21.99 adult, £17.99 youth) and socks (£11.99 adult, £9.99 youth) in the same colours.
“Under Armour have come up with a great alternative to our traditional home red colour kit, which since its launch a few short weeks ago has been selling extremely well,” added Maxwell.
“This kit is the most technologically advanced ever and has been designed and fine-tuned in close consultation with the players for maximum performance value and, perhaps most importantly it looks great too.”
Modelling the match day shirt for Friday with @Owilliams91, can’t wait to run out at the Millennium wearing it!! ? pic.twitter.com/Y3r81a5cVX
— Hallam Amos (@hallam_amos) November 19, 2013
me and the kids fighting over my new @WelshRugbyUnion jersey!! pic.twitter.com/MCG08MyuKX
— Ryan Jones (@RyanJonesOnline) November 19, 2013
Looking forward to running out on the millennium with the new welsh jersey on this Friday #shirtlaunch pic.twitter.com/0k57BRJkSY
— Owen williams (@Owilliams91) November 19, 2013
Chilling with pwd seeing how he likes the new @WelshRugbyUnion jersey for Friday night. Think he approves ? pic.twitter.com/tV9AqlteaG
— George North (@George_North) November 20, 2013
Just seen the new kit for Friday. Thoughts? pic.twitter.com/NWk4Otd5XH
— Martyn Williams (@martynewilliams) November 20, 2013
@UnderArmourUK @WelshRugbyUnion New shirt.Now I’m ready for the game on Friday. pic.twitter.com/4rBwi9xt4W
— Scott Quinnell (@ScottQuinnell) November 20, 2013
