Memories of past glories will be invoked when the Wallabies next run out onto the field of play after a Rugby Australia panel voted to return to the shade of gold worn at the 1991 World Cup.
Some of the most influential players to have worn the jersey convened on Thursday night to decide which colour scheme the national teams should follow in years to come, with the same gold worn by the World Cup-winning Wallabies 30 years ago getting the nod.
The idea to hold a vote was the brainchild of the Rugby Australia chairman, Hamish McClennan, who told Guardian Australia the move paid homage to Australian heritage and was an effort to achieve the consistency of branding other international rivals, including the All Blacks, have enjoyed.
“I’ve been frustrated with the look and feel of the way the Wallabies have been portrayed for a long time,” McClennan said. “From a pure branding sense, within the world of rugby, the Springboks have dominant green, the All Blacks are all black. We’ve just been jumping all over the place.
“I felt we had to bring that sort of consistency to how we portray the jersey because when done well it is iconic.”
The 1991 shirt also polled top in a public vote conducted by the Sydney Morning Herald. It will now be used as the basis for current kit manufacturer, Asics, when designing the next iteration of both the Wallabies and Wallaroos jerseys.
The classic 1984 jersey from the grand slam-winning team captained by Andrew Slack came a close second, with McClennan casting the final vote in favour of the 1991 version after the poll ended in a tie between the two.
More than 13,000 people cast votes in the online poll, and McClennan said that while the 1991 shirt was his personal favourite, it was ultimately the views of those fans he took into account.
“We are meant to green and gold,” he said. “Australia’s colours are green and gold. The colour that we ended up with is definitely gold and not yellow. That’s the point: a lot of rugby fans have not liked shades of canary yellow at all. It’s important to a lot of fans.
The year 1991 “was anchored in a famous World Cup win and I’m all about putting the good DNA back into rugby in Australia,” the RA chairman said. “I like heritage.”
The Nick Farr-Jones-captained team posted a famous win over 1991 World Cup hosts England in the final at Twickenham to secure the Webb-Ellis trophy and become world champions for the first time, a feat they would repeat in 1999.
Asked if future Wallabies and Wallaroos would gain some kind of inspiration from previous glories when they pulled on the new kit, McClennan said: “If they do that would be great. What I want to get to in 30 years time, if you get the chance and you’re lucky enough to pull that jersey on, then you know it has real meaning and lineage. So there is a message in that.”
The 2021 fixture list is yet to be confirmed but the new kit will be launched in time for when the Wallabies next run out later this year.
“Everyone’s got an opinion, it’s not just me,” McClennan added. “This has been going on for years. Rugby die-hards have been quite frustrated with the way the colours and jerseys have been portrayed. This is not a new conversation. We’ve just done something about it.”