Whatever happened to: Rugby Boots?

Back in the mists of time life was very simple for rugby players, especially when it came to choice of footwear.

If you were a forward you bought a pair of solid, ankle-high boots with a hard toe-cap. If you were a girl back you wore lower-cut footie-style boots. And, whatever your positional disposition, your boots were unashamedly black.

These days, of course, all has changed. White boots, red boots, silver boots, luminous yellow boots…the choice is endless. Even the All Blacks are at it (although I suppose they can be excused on the basis that if you are going to wear coloured boots then you’d better be bloody good).

It is, perhaps, a sign of the times – i.e. a need to draw attention to oneself as part of the cult of the individual rather than as part of the collective (a symptom often associated with Haskell’s Disease). If so it is somewhat ironic as, such is the plethora of coloured boots on display these days that, as a strategy, it is doomed to failure.

And, sadly, I have to admit that, had coloured boots been available when I was in my twenties, I almost certainly would have worn a pair :(