'Blackest jersey' comes in two fits - forwards or backs

More than two years in the making, adidas has unveiled the most technologically-advanced and blackest All Blacks jersey ever.

The white collar has been dropped and it's gunmetal silver for numbers and logos.

Revealed overnight in London, the new All Blacks strip will see the boys running out against England at Twickenham in the "blackest jersey ever" this weekend.

The flash new threads have taken more than two years to develop and are expected to take the team through to next year's Rugby World Cup in the UK.

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Made from woven carbon fabric, the uniforms have been designed to accommodate player movement as well as hold their shape - ensuring our top rugby men can pull off all their on-field moves.

Skipper Richie McCaw said the new outfits, which involved input from a raft of senior players during development, had been given a thumbs up by the team.

"The boys love it," he told the Herald. "I think it looks awesome. I'm a bit of a traditionalist when it comes to a rugby jersey, but it looks like a rugby jersey, and it's black, the blackest we've ever had in fact, and it feels pretty good on."

Player feedback had also contributed to the creation of two types of jerseys - one for forwards and another for backs.

"The big boys need to be able to grip in the scrums, then you've got the backs who don't need to do that, so they want it as tight as possible so the other team can't get hold of it."

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"The team have always said that fit is what's most important to the players, so it's great to have two different jerseys for the forwards and backs." The return to the all-black sans white collar jersey is the latest in the evolution of the All Blacks uniform which originally featured a full white collar and was long sleeved. When adidas took over from Canterbury in 1999, it introduced the black chinese-style collar, which remained for the 2007 World Cup. The white collar was resurrected for the 2011 World Cup in New Zealand as a throwback to the jersey worn when the country previously hosted and won the tournament in 1987.