World Rugby to Tackle Color-Blindness

World Rugby, the governing body for the sport of rugby union, plans to ban red-green kit clashes to help color-blind fans. 

Around 8.5% of rugby fans experience red-green color vision defects, so World Rugby is concerned that this could decrease spectators for certain rugby matches. 

This means that when teams such as Ireland (who wear a mainly green kit)  or Wales (who wear a mainly red kit) play each other, one of the teams will have to wear its alternate jersey. 

Yet, it’s not just the fans who are affected. Color-blindness is also experienced by players, coaches, and referees. 

Ambassador for Scottish Rugby, Chris Paterson, explains that a player’s focus is on the ball, which can sometimes make it difficult to distinguish the opposition. This difficulty is exacerbated when a rugby player is red-green color blind.

World Rugby hopes that tackling ways to overcome the deficiency will also make the game safer and allow more players to play the sport at their fullest potential.

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