Ireland are all set for their mouth-watering clash against South Africa at the Aviva Stadium to round out their Autumn Nations Series.
After a slow start against New Zealand and Japan, Ireland looked to be in the groove of things after they smashed the Wallabies last Saturday and look primed and ready to take on the back-to-back World Champions Springboks.
Ireland-South Africa rarely disappoints, with the last 5 meetings between these sides all being decided by one score.
Dan Sheehan. Pic: Ben Brady/INPHO
Why are Ireland wearing white?
However, one thing people will notice in the match is that Ireland will be the ones wearing a changed strip, despite being the home team, with Canterbury debuting a brand new all-white strip for the clash. The Springboks will wear their green jersey in what’s a bit of an unusual move, as in the vast majority of sports, it’s the away team that wears a changed kit in the event of a colour clash.
But rugby is different, as it’s tradition for the home team to wear a changed kit if there’s a colour clash. It stems from the idea of ‘rugby values’ and ‘sportsmanship’ being the most important thing during the amateur era of the game in the 20th Century.
Jamison Gibson-Park of Ireland and Max Llewellyn of Wales during the 2025 Six Nations. Pic: Ben McShane/Sportsfile
The tradition also may stem from teams going on mammoth tours, like the All Blacks, who would travel to the Northern Hemisphere and play matches every few days across the UK and Ireland. Teams going on these tours probably didn’t have the money or space to carry around various sets of kits, so it was easier for the home team to wear a changed kit.
However, this doesn’t mean this is always the case. Just this past year, during the Six Nations, Ireland wore a white jersey for their match against Wales in Cardiff. Although green and red wouldn’t traditionally have been a kit clash, World Rugby has worked on making the game more accessible, with green and red being a kit clash for people with colour blindness, thus Ireland wore white instead.
And even just a couple of weeks ago, the Springboks wore a white jersey when they played France at the Stade de France in Paris. The tradition isn’t law, so it’s up to the teams’ discretion what they wear.