What do you think of England's plan to wear black?
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No, that's not New Zealand playing boring 10-man rugby, just England wearing black.
The England rugby team's reported plans to wear a black strip at the Rugby World Cup haven't bothered the All Blacks much but fans have voiced their outrage on a Facebook protest page called Get Our Gear
Off.
The 2003 world champions, who traditionally wear white, will open their tournament by wearing a black jersey and shorts combination against Argentina in Dunedin on September 10, the Daily Mail reports.
The side wore a similar strip against Australia during a match at Twickenham last year.
The paper reports the kit will debut against Wales at Twickenham on August 6 and in three of England's warm-up games before the World Cup.
However, if they met the All Blacks in the tournament they would likely wear white.
France wore a darker version of their traditional navy blue strip at the last World Cup which forced the All Blacks to wear a grey jersey in their quarter-final match at Cardiff, which the French won 20-18.
All Black captain Richie McCaw said: "They obviously like it, eh."
He said, however, that the All Blacks prefer to play in their customary black jersey every time.
"It would be nice if we could wear the black jersey every time, but the reality is there are obviously other teams who are doing this. It's not something we can control. If we all get worried about it here, we get ourselves in trouble.
"Two years ago we played in France in a white jersey and put in a good performance. If it comes down to what colour you wear determines how you play, then we've got trouble I reckon. What will be will be. It would be nice to be in black, but if we're not you just get on with it."
Former All Black captain Taine Randell called the England move "tacky", saying it was likely dreamed up by the same marketing geniuses who produced promos for a Six Nations champion, thinking it would be England, and were proved wrong.
He thinks the players wouldn't have had much say about the jerseys.
"I don't know, are they just not proud of the colours they wear? Their history that they've had over the last hundred odd years?
"It's like going to Australia and the All Blacks having a reserve strip of gold jerseys," said Randell.
Contributors to the Facebook protest page clearly felt the English colour choice wasn't good.
One All Black fan wrote: "The Poms are trying to steal our heritage by having their rugby team swap to an All Black strip. Not acceptable to us real AB fans. Poms will not be welcomed in NZ for the RWC2011."
Gerard Murphy said: "If the Poms promise to wear white, we promise to give them their dumb flag back!"
- Staff reporters
