Silver lining to All Blacks jersey

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WORRYING TIMES: It takes a lot to force Richie McCaw off the field but a leg injury saw him replaced early against England, hot on the heels of Ali Williams' premature departure.

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All Blacks past and present are part of a thread of futuristic-sounding technology which has the backing of captain Richie McCaw.

Fibre-imprinting nanotechnology developed at Canterbury University is going to get rugby fans closer than ever to the national team. The names of as many as 100,000 fans are to be printed on to a single thread which will be sewn into the silver fern on a special- edition jersey in a campaign organised by All Blacks sponsor adidas.

McCaw visited the MacDiarmid Institute of Advanced Materials and Nanotechnology to learn about the process and inspect a jersey with the names of all 1073 past and present all Blacks stitched into the silver fern.

"I never thought it was possible, but it's a cool concept. It's very special to see everyone's name lined up there," McCaw said.

The jersey will be presented to McCaw and the All Blacks at November's Bledisloe Cup match in Hong Kong.

The intricate stitching process was developed by Professor Richard Blaikie and research engineer Gary Turner.

Professor Blaikie equated the stitching technology to a "very, very, very sharp pencil" which could write 100 names per millimetre. The scale of the work was not particularly challenging. It was the use of a thread that presented the greatest challenges.

He likened the technology to imprinting information on a credit card, bank note, compact disc or DVD – except it was in fibre form. "We're used to imprinting on to silicon chip-type substrates and so Gary and I did a whole lot of work to get it working on fibres. There were a lot of failures and head scratching. Then I thought we'd try something new, so we got it to work."

Marketing manager for adidas New Zealand John Beckett said: "When you put your name on the jersey, you are literally part of it – the fabric of a nation."