New Wales kit looms large
Images of current Wales internationals modelling the kit for the 2010-2011 season were projected onto the side of the tallest building in Cardiff, new shirt sponsor Admiral’s head office Capital Tower.
Wales captain Ryan Jones was joined by Shane Williams, Martyn Williams, Jamie Roberts, Lee Byrne and Alun Wyn Jones in six different action pictures which were rotated on the building between the hours of 8pm and 2am to the delight of Friday night revellers in Cardiff.
The players are pictured in both the new predominantly red, with white flashes, home kit and the blue and red away kit which was launched earlier this week, and are performing a variety of different rugby moves as well as posing for a group shot in the images.
Capital Tower, on Greyfriars road in Cardiff City Centre, houses 1,600 Admiral staff and is the head office of Wales’ only FTSE 100 listed company, which employs 3,500 people in Wales and has over two million customers around the UK.
At 262ft high Capital Tower is brick for brick the tallest building in Cardiff – the Millennium Stadium’s masts are 294ft tall but the building itself comes in at approximately 153ft tall – and the images were spread around two sides of the rectangular building spanning some 28 office windows and stretched right up above other City centre rooftops.
Admiral will be seen on Wales jerseys in action for the first time when Warren Gatland’s men take on Australia in the first of four gruelling encounters at the Millennium Stadium this November, for a campaign which also welcomes world champions South Africa, Rugby World Cup Pool D opponents Fiji and New Zealand to Cardiff.
“This is the next step in a marketing campaign which will be run through to November, when we play our first matches in the new Admiral jersey, and which is set to feature a variety of rugby stars from the past and present of Welsh rugby along with regular fans,” said a WRU spokesperson.
“The images featuring Ryan Jones and a number of well known faces from the current squad loomed large in the sky on the tallest building in Cardiff’s city centre and are designed to hammer home the message to fans that we have a proud new sponsor on our international jersey, in global insurance giant Admiral.
“It is a jersey produced and designed by sports performance clothing giant Under Armour to the very highest specifications.
“The artwork on the Admiral building is also the first we have published which features the new blue away design and with sales already significantly up around the UK on our jersey launch from 2008, the kit is expected to be popular amongst Welsh rugby fans around the globe.”
The full range of kit is available to purchase online at http://www.wru.co.uk/shop and from any of the WRU’s 64 UK-wide official retail outlets.