The Hulk Returns

Pre-season is upon us, ticking along in the shade of summer blockbusters such as the Tour de France, Wimbledon and of course the World Cup.  Leaving scant morsels for rugby fans, crumbs such as Séan O'Brien's lumbering jack-of-all-trades' approach to training and 1D's Niall Horan's getting a coaching in kicking have been all that has been of note recently...

The Larch! The Pine! The Giant Redwood!

ROG you don't know you're beautiful

Not only that, but any impending jersey releases have been superseded by the shocking news that the heaviest player to compete in the 2011 Rugby World Cup, Tony Buckley, has retired...  A moment to reflect as this oft maligned prop returns to his chosen trade of plumbing...

And finally the cogs of commercial venture started to wheel out the impending season's fare.  Connacht Rugby were first up, with their new sponsor Lifestyle Sports announcing their backing by way of a tie dye training top.  Manufactered by blk, it's likely that the new alternate jersey will see it's debut against Clermont on August 8th.

From this...

... To this?

Not one to be outdone, careful research has unearthed adidas' new alternate jersey for the 2014-15 season.  Munster kit manager Pat Kiely gave an insight into what may lie ahead with this snippet:

This year's kit is going down very well, so much so I've yet to receive any complaints. Some of the new colours include luminous orange and green which go down well with the younger lads - you know yourself, they like a bit of flash.

Indeed, this is a tactic oft used by adidas.  A pattern first emerged in 2009, 2010, 2011, and again now in 2014 whereby adidas have tried to emulate the commonplace highlighter.

     

Whereas 2009's yellow and 2011's green elements were training jerseys, 2014's alternate jersey is a recurrence of the neon "Nightwolf" patchwork neon green exhibited in 2010's patchwork alternate jersey, except on a much larger scale, taking inspiration from the Highlanders 2014 alternate jersey.  From the neon green, to the tribal stag pattern, this is a jersey that will thankfully only be used in pre-season friendlies (Gloucester vs Munster 23rd August 2014 in Kingsholm) and the away game against Scarlets in the RaboDirect Guinness Pro12...