Due to the success of tier 2 rugby nations at the recent 2023 Rugby World Cup there has been a dramatic rise in demand for shirts from underdog rugby nations. Unfortunately this has led to a huge uptick in the number of fakes, with some shirts being being more faked than others. Below is a quick rundown of which shirts have counterfeit copies, and how to spot those that are.
As of January 2024 the 2023 Rugby World Cup shirts of Uruguay, Namibia, Georgia and Romania have not yet been copied. Whilst the three most counterfeited shirts are Portugal, Japan and Fiji. These fakes are rife on eBay and other online marketplaces, to the extent that 99% of listings are fakes.
As mentioned in the earlier blog post on fake shirts, legitimate Japan rugby shirts can be easily spotted as since 2019 they always have a rubberised blossom logo. Any shirts that don't can be easily labelled as fakes. Fake Portugal shirts can be a little harder to weed out, but one obvious tell tale sign is at the collar. Legitimate Portugal 2023 Rugby World Cup shirts have three stitches at the base of front of the collar (see picture below). Counterfeit jerseys do not (currently) have these stitches.
If a listing is for a 'brand new with tags' shirt then please take a look at the tag. If it resembles the tag in the picture below, with the size sticker included, then it is 100% a fake. Whilst all legitimate 2023 Rugby World Cup shirts have a similar 2023 Rugby World Cup tag, they do not have a size sticker like the one below.
All our shirts at Underdog Rugby are legitimate. If you are shopping elsewhere then please contact us if you are unsure if you are buying a fake; we would be glad to assist you.
