Why I am pleased Ireland are wearing white against Wales
THE Irish will be wearing a white kit in the Six Nations for the first time in history when they take on Wales next Saturday (February 22) and I can’t be more pleased.
Most people might be confused about why they are wearing the colour associated with England but for me it’s fantastic news because I, along with 300 million others, suffer from colour blindness.
The move from both Welsh and Irish rugby to help colour-blind fans is a welcome one and long overdue.
For most of my 24 years, whenever I have told someone I am colour blind I get some stupid question such as “what colour is the grass?” – for the avoidance of doubt, it is green by the way.
Questions like this have become a bit of a laugh when meeting new people but they do show that the issue of colour blindness is not something that most people have given much thought to.
This is not all that surprising considering only one in 12 men or one in 200 women worldwide suffer from the condition, meaning less than 4% of the world is affected.
I am fortunate that my red/green colour blindness is not as bad as others but from a wide angle when Ireland and Wales are lined up against each other or in a busy ruck, scrum or driving maul there are times when I struggle to make out which side is which.
I would like to think that the change of kit will not have any impact on the lives of most people, however like most changes to sports there will always be a certain group who will dismiss this move as “utter woke nonsense”.
When The Good, The Bad and The Rugby posted this news on its Instagram, the comments, as you might expect, were full of the usual crowd of angry people expressing ignorant views.
“But the pitch is green. So that kinda makes a mockery of that argument?” said one user.
“The world has gone nuts, so millions have to pay the price for a handful. There you have it, democracy working perfectly,” said another.
“WHAT? Who makes this stuff up? They’re colour blind. We don’t care if they can’t see colours anyway.”
It blows my mind that some people can get so upset over such an insignificant change but that appears to be the world we live in.
Regardless of the thoughts of some small-minded people, Ireland will never wear green in Cardiff and Wales will never wear red in Dublin again, and that is without a doubt a good thing.
But even if Ireland were to wear green next Saturday it should not be too difficult to tell which side is which – the team scoring tries will probably be Ireland – Wales, at the moment, like my eyes, are rubbish.
