The well known English Rugby team from Gloucester are known to fans and foes alike as the “cherry and whites” because of the striped red and white English rugby shirts that the team wears.  Gloucester Rugby is one of the most popular professional teams in the Rugby Union.  They hail from (duh) Gloucester, in England.

Gloucester (a city in west England and also a nickname for the team) competes in the English national Guiness Premiership.  They also compete in lesser known championships such as the European Rugby Cup, and the Anglo-Welsh EDF Energy Cup.  Their home stadium is located near the center of Gloucester city at Kingsholm.  Their main rivals are Bristol and Bath rugby teams.  The Gloucester team was founded in 1873.

The team is commonly called the “cherry and whites”, but that is the nickname given by die-hard fans.  Really, the official jersey color was navy blue when the team first started out.  The original “cherry and white” team was Painswick Rugby Football Club.  According to an urban legend, the Gloucestter team was forced to wear the red and white colors when they forgot to bring their navy blue shirts to an important competition.  Since at that time there were no airplanes or fast modes of transportation, the team just stopped by at the nearest rugby club (which happened to be Painswick RFC in Gloucestershire) and borrowed their kits.  Fortunately, Painswick had 15 available jerseys in cherry pink and white.  The Gloucester team was overwhelmed by their victory at the competition that they failed to return the kits they borrowed from Painswick.  Since that day, the team started to wear cherry and white hooped jersey uniforms.

In an effort to modernize the club in 2005, the Gloucester coat of arms was taken off of the jerseys.

If you would like to be a stylish rugby player, why not pick up some rugby league clothing?