An odd choice: risky in the sense that they haven’t been producing modern rugby kits so not sure they’d be up for its technically; and design wise a bit of a throw back to the football team from the 90s...

Notwithstanding that, they have produced some classic football kits and I’m sure they’ll be up for making their mark in rugby with this contract.

To be honest I thought the company was done for so am pleased to see that they’ve been resurrected. My understanding was that they were bought by Nike, who took all the lucrative contracts (England football, Manchester City, etc etc) and then dumped them. But I see they have been emerging again in the football top couple of tiers.

They’re a solid British brand - and a specialist one and in the era of sportswear being dominated by the big global brands of Nike and Adidas (much as these are quality...) I like to see more local and traditional providers suck as Umbro and Canterbury getting some of the big contracts in the sports that they have really focussed on.

I suspect that they would mix it up a bit and probably design a white shirt with a rose over the left breast.

Being a general fan of rugby kits and also collecting a few from over the years, this news does surprise me. Umbro haven’t been in the rugby game for decades, however I remember when they used to be the supplier for England in the 80’s I believe and looking at the past England rugby kits produced by Umbro they used to do a decent job in my opinion.

Personally I would have liked and hoped that Nike could have won the deal to produce and supply the England kit again. I was a big fan of each and every England shirt they released and they had some good training range that went with it, some magnificent designs and also quality in durability, plus very nice to wear both the player issue kit, standard replica kit and the cotton long sleeved kit.
Canterbury haven’t done a bad job since they took over with some nice kits here and there, but I wouldn’t say they’ve blown me away either. Giving England and other teams the same template for the home kits this year gave off the impression that you couldn’t be bothered and didn’t put much care into it. Especially during a World Cup year, you would have thought Canterbury would have put some thought into it.

Either way, I am optimistic with Umbro; they seem to have overcome their troubles from a few years ago and again are producing nice kits and good boots again. I especially really liked their England World Cup 2010 football kit they made. They gave a classic all white look and redone their feel of the kit with a sport mesh infused cotton feel, during their campaign of “Tailored in England, by Umbro”. They care and design they put into those kits was exemplary and I hope they do something like that with the future England rugby kits should this news be true and the deal come into fruition.