Hello Italian ruggers !
Let's go for some stripes...
There is no doubt that English Football-Rugby college teams, and then senior teams, adopted vertical stripes around 1850-1870, while Football-Association teams adopted vertical stripes... This is exactly the period when the two forms of football clearly moved their own way and settle their own rules... Yes, first rules of football-rugby were set in 1845, but "rugby as you know it" was only codified in 1871 (basic stuff such as the number of players !)
A French historian - Michel Pastoureau - has wrote a bunch of great books about the meaning of colours. One chapter deals with stripes, and gives very advanced explanantions of the meaning of stripes in the Society (that I wont detail now...) but just to mention that this Mr Pastoureau will give a conference next oct11 in Paris during the RWC just about stripes and colours in the rugby kit !!
I have a very simple theory about why rugby kits have horizontal stripes : because the original sports kit of rugby college was like this... and all the others have somehow copied... here is the original Rugby college rugby kit (with Skull and Crossbones... like pirates... )
OK, end of story... all of you are invited to visit my website about rugby history
http://www.rugby-pioneers.com
Frederic
www.rugby-pioneers.com
And some other stripes (in colour!) ...
