St Helen’s ArchivePreserving the past for the future

Jerseys

There are well over 100 jerseys in the St Helen’s Archive. The standing of the St Helen’s ground as a major international rugby venue from 1882 to 1954 has enriched the collection with many examples from the representative teams that have played on the famous pitch. The earliest jerseys date from 1891 and there are examples through the years right into the 21st century. The Swansea club’s historical position as a worthy opponent to so many touring teams has endowed the jersey collection with wonderful additions from all over the world, both club and international. Swansea’s touring record abroad stands alongside any club in the world and again the jersey collection has benefitted from the club’s activities abroad.

The large and varied accumulation of jerseys can never be adequately represented in a physical display. Now for the first time, the jersey collection as a whole can be viewed on this website. Some of the earliest examples are now too fragile to bear up to being on display in cabinets. Many of these jerseys have been swapped post-match by renowned players on each team. Some have been gifted by various clubs and unions and others donated by their proud owners or their families. All are recorded here.

The origin numbers on jerseys

Numbering on the back of rugby jerseys began in a haphazard fashion. New Zealand and Queensland wore numbered jerseys in 1897 on the former’s first tour abroad. The arrangement was 1 to 15 starting at the full-back. Match programmes carried the numbers on the team lists to aid spectators’ recognition of the players. Australia quickly followed suit and wore numbers against New Zealand in 1903 and the British Isles tourists in 1904, in the latter case, the number system being reversed and the full-back wearing 15.

The ‘first’ All Blacks again wore numbers on their British tour in 1905 and when they played Wales on 16th December 1905 both teams wore numbers, the Welsh team for the first time. On this occasion both full-backs wore the number 1 jersey. South Africa soon played in numbers and did so on their British tour of 1906.

The system varied as rugby unions tried to outwit pirate match programme producers and make only the official programme worth purchasing. Other variations included the changing of numbers 6 and 7, especially in South Africa and Argentina. With British and Irish national teams having number 8 reserved for the loose head prop and New Zealand using a 15 jersey, no unified system was in place. For a number of years Welsh international jerseys went up to 16, thus avoiding the number 13! In the 1930s letters were also in vogue. The St Helen’s collection sports more than one example of Welsh jerseys with letters on the back.

Clubs followed the international penchant for changing the numbering system, Swansea adopting numbers permanently in the 1930s. Other clubs, notably Bath. Leicester and Bristol adopted different lettering systems. But by 1967 the IRB system of numbers was the adopted standard: Full-back – 15, Three-quarters – 11-14, Outside-half – 10, Scrum-half – 9, back row – 6-8, second row – 4 & 5, front row – 1-3, with replacements from 16-23.