It’s April 1997 in Courage League National Division Two and Bedford are welcoming the visit of Newcastle to Goldington Road in a battle for promotion to the top division.

Blue, red and white, and with graphics that embraced Auckland’s moniker as the ‘city of sails’, the 1997 Blues jersey remains their greatest to date, even nearly 30 years on.

While the Harlequins jersey has forever been flamboyant, it also remained resolutely unchanged, with the famed quarters sacrosanct.

England may have been comfortably the best team in the world in 2003 but, in the end, it was a game of inches for Martin Johnson and co. to lift the World Cup. This pioneering shirt was one of them.

England beat Fiji by 45-24 to advance to the 1999 World Cup quarterfinals in a seemingly unremarkable game, but not for those with a keen eye for playing jerseys.

Garish is the first word that’s springs to mind with this alternative Scotland shirt from the 1999 World Cup, surely one of the worst to ever be worn on rugby’s greatest stage.

In many people’s eyes, this jersey is objectively the greatest to ever grace the Rugby World Cup - even the most ardent Pom can admit this green and gold number sits at the top of the rugby jersey tree.

With the tricolore down the sleeves and the traditional Adidas trefoil, this 1987 number is arguably the quintessential French jersey. Synonymous with the Pelé of rugby and worn in the game of the century, could this be the greatest French World Cup shirt?

When Jonah Lomu joined Cardiff Blues in 2005, it was destined this sky blue and black shirt he wore at the Arms Park would instantly become iconic.

With navy over the shoulders and chest, white around the torso and striped, orange detailing, Brumbies entered the Super 12s era with few expecting much from them on the pitch but clad in a jersey for the ages.

The short-lived 1999 World Cup campaign was Spain’s first and only to date, but robed in a striking combination of red, yellow and royal blue, their distinctive jersey certainly left an impression.

It’s one of those peculiarities that every newcomer to rugby has to tap their mate on the shoulder and ask about: why do Leicester Tigers have letters on their shirts?

This shirt was worn on Munster backs for so many famous victories, but none more so than the day the club beat the All Blacks.

The questionable Canada shirt worn in their most memorable Rugby World Cup game has gone on to become a cult classic.

For 470 internationals spanning 125 years, the England national rugby team took to the field without a sponsor’s name adorning the front of their pristine, traditional white jerseys.

London Irish and Guinness have always been synonymous, a fact reflected by this classic late-90s playing shirt, part and parcel of some of the best days at The Avenue.

A shirt made famous as much by the ‘Trelawney Army’ that flooded into Twickenham for the, as the 1991 County Championship-winning side that wore it on the field.

Over 25 years on from Newcastle’s sensational 1997/98 Premiership winning season, we take a look at the story of the iconic Adidas shirt that overturned a century-old tradition.

In 2005, Stade Français president Max Guazzini wanted to get people talking, again. By introducing the now iconic pink kit he took on the macho rugby world – today, it’s safe to say, he won.