Kit design/heraldry?

slowburner

My son's school doesn't have a great tradition of playing rugby. This year, they managed to put a team together. They've turned out to be pretty good and very committed. So much so, that the headmaster has agreed to buy them proper kit. Until now, they've had to borrow the school's GAA jerseys.
The team has been asked to design their own "colour scheme".
The only tradition that I am aware of, is that hoops signify rugby and stripes signify football, but have no idea of the origins or significance of 'Harlequinesque' or 'Perpignanish' patterns.
Any advice on the origins and symbolism of such patterns would be most welcome.

funky penguin

I know the Harlequin's pattern comes from a very old 'comic servant' with many variations on job description from the 1500s and 1600s. To be honest I have no idea why the club is called such. According to the club's wiki it's because they 'found it in a dctionary'.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harlequin

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harlequin_F.C.

Not sure about Perpignan.

GerM

Don't think there's anything to the Perpignan design. There are some outlandish designs in French rugby. The red and gold are the colours of the Catalan flag which explains the colour scheme.

MareAtlanticvm

I have no idea of the answer to your question, but it is great to hear that your son's school is getting involved in playing rugby. It is always great to hear of the sport expanding in Ireland and it is wonderful game to play as a schoolkid.

Best of luck.

Teej

Again not answering your question, but why not base the colour scheme on the school's existing teams? Same colours as the GAA teams - promote unity, school spirit etc

slowburner

Teej wrote: »

Again not answering your question, but why not base the colour scheme on the school's existing teams? Same colours as the GAA teams - promote unity, school spirit etc

I suppose that makes a lot of sense and would be the general idea, anyway.
Thanks for not answering my question!:p

Mark A

I'd say just a rugby jersey, with a design and colour scheme that is as close to the other school jerseys as is possible. In particular, if the school doesn't already use hoops, then I'd see no reason to change for the rugby team.

As for the origin / reason - obviously I'm not answering your question there either, other than giving you the opinion of someone with a schools and club rugby background.

karlitob

Mark A wrote: »

I'd say just a rugby jersey, with a design and colour scheme that is as close to the other school jerseys as is possible. In particular, if the school doesn't already use hoops, then I'd see no reason to change for the rugby team.

As for the origin / reason - obviously I'm not answering your question there either, other than giving you the opinion of someone with a schools and club rugby background.

I would imagine that the origin is based on the British Schooling System. A silly analogy maybe but if you consider the Harry Potter films. Each house has its own colours and jerseys came from that. Squares or hoops usually. While i dont know of any rugby teams with stripes, Partick Thistle and Celtic come to mind for soccer hoops.

mikedragon32

If you go to the likes of OB sport, they will prepare CAD samples for you based on the colours you want.

They'll vary from standard solid colours, to hoops, check and on to waaaaay out there stuff like camo style.

But absolutely the colours should at least be consistent with the Gaa shirts you're borrowing at the moment.

Leroy Lita

what colours are the school? let me know and il do up a sample jersey for ya on the oneills and azzuri websites

slowburner

Not too sure what the colours are, yet. They seem to have two sets of kit - red/white and green/black. I don't think it's an away/home set up, though.
We'll look into it.