Captain Antoine Dupont in the shirt France will wear against England. France will wear a special edition pale blue shirt in Saturday’s Six Nations game in Paris to mark 120 years of rivalry — the fixture presented as france v england and already prompting debate over kit choice and the competition prize on offer.
France V England: Why will France play in light blue?
The French federation says the match jersey draws on the rivalry’s history. “Drawing directly from the history of the rivalry, the design of the match jersey – and its replica version – references the original light blue jersey worn by the French team in 1906 for their first fixture against England, ” said a French federation statement. The special collection also carries the 1927 FFR logo to denote the year of the French team’s first victory against England, while the ‘Tricolore’ stripes nod to French kits of the late 80s and 90s when adidas was the kit supplier of the federation.
Will the kits cause a clash, and what responses are being taken?
The change to a pale blue shirt has raised concerns about a possible kit clash because England play in white. Reports suggest England will stick to wearing their traditional white shirt. The Six Nations has set precedents for kit adjustments to protect clarity for spectators: the tournament no longer allows red and green shirts in the Wales v Ireland fixture because of the difficulty spectators who are colour blind would have telling the teams apart, a rule that recently left Wales wearing white in Dublin so they would appear light against Ireland’s dark green.
France usually play in darker blue and wore their white away shirt in the 50-40 defeat in Edinburgh against Scotland last weekend. Those recent kit choices underline that the teams and tournament organizers have managed visual clashes by switching shirts when necessary.
What is at stake on the pitch beyond the shirts?
A bonus-point win against Steve Borthwick’s side will secure Les Bleus a record eighth Six Nations crown. England defeated France in last year’s Six Nations, a fact that frames this fixture not only as a centenary-style gesture in kit design but as a decisive match in the title chase. The arithmetic of a bonus-point win makes the shirt choice a background to a game with clear tournament implications.
Named individuals and institutions already figure in the moment: Antoine Dupont as captain; Steve Borthwick as the leader of the opposing side; the French federation as the organizer of the commemorative kit; and the Six Nations as the competition authority whose colour rules have influenced recent kit decisions.
Measures taken so far are straightforward: France has chosen the pale blue historic kit; England are set to keep white; tournament rules that limit problematic colour pairings remain the mechanism to avoid confusion for spectators, including those who are colour blind.
As fans move toward the stadium in Paris on match day, the pale blue shirt will be read both as a historical gesture and a live tactical backdrop to a contest where a bonus-point win would hand France a record eighth crown. The simplicity of the jerseys belies the stakes on the field — and returns attention to the rivalry at the heart of france v england.
