All Blacks all right in white

All Blacks in France

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Fans gather as All Blacks Brad Thorn, Tony Woodcock, Luke McAlister, Ma'a Nonu, Jimmy Cowan and Dan Carter attend a shirt signing session at an adidas store in Marseille.

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Graham Henry would prefer black, but white's all right with the All Blacks as they carve a little piece of history against France here on Saturday night.

And at least we can all be happy about one thing – the dreadful, cursed grey jersey of the 2007 World Cup has been consigned to the scrapheap.

History of sorts will be made when the All Blacks run out in radiant white for what's believed to be the first time against France here on Saturday night. They have previously played in white jerseys against Scotland, almost always at home under the old IRB edict.

It is only since the French changed their jersey colour under a new sponsorship deal to a darker shade of blue that there was deemed to be a jersey clash when they met the All Blacks.

That saw the All Blacks, after losing a coin-toss, switching to their alternate grey strip for the quarterfinal at the '07 World Cup. They were subsequently upset by the French, meaning the jerseys were instantly classed in the "to-be-forgotten" category.

This year, All Blacks sponsor adidas released a new alternate white jersey and under the new IRB rule that the away team now changes when there is deemed to be a clash, that will be worn in Saturday night's final test of the year.

Adding spice to the situation is the suggestion that they needn't have bothered, with the 2009 French jersey having gone lighter again, plus white shorts added to the ensemble.

Coach Henry reckoned it was all much ado about nothing.

"The All Blacks like to play in black, they would prefer to play in black, but they are playing in white, and they accept that and get on with it," he said.

Brad Thorn, who's a bit of a history buff, was more than happy to be the All Blacks in name only this weekend.

"I'd be pretty keen to keep it," he said, declaring the alternate a "special" jersey. "I remember them playing in the 1987 World Cup (against Scotland) in a white jersey and it was cool.

"I remember them as the alternate strip and it'll be unique to wear it," said Thorn.

Turns out he was no fan of the ghostly grey jersey though. He called them "unappealing". Certainly the performance in them could be classified as that.

- © Fairfax NZ News