Brains SA to 'Try Essai'

Wales skipper Ryan Jones in the new jersey

24 February 2009, 10:48 am

By WRU

Wales captain Ryan Jones has unveiled the new international shirt to be worn for his side's RBS 6 Nations visit to France this Friday, featuring an innovative change of logo from official sponsors Brains.

The latest initiative from the Welsh beer brand reveals 'Try Essai' branding in reference to the 'Brains SA' logo on the current home shirt.

While 'essai' translates as 'try' in French, spoken aloud in English the insignia is intended to be mistaken for an invitation to 'try' Wales' best loved beer brand SA.

Brains has been sponsoring the Welsh team for the last four and a half years and in 2005 they neatly swapped 'Brains' for 'Brawn' then, in 2007, to firmly establish the 'Brawn' idea in rugby fans minds, the shirts carried 'Brawn Again'.

This time around the sponosr has hit upon another novel alternative that will ensure the Welsh beer brand isn't overlooked in France.

The Welsh Rugby Union intends to follow up on the popularity of the Brains shirts with some replica t-shirts of its own available in official outlets from Wednesday.

These t-shirts, the first of their kind to be retailed, have been produced by Under Armour for a limited edition range of just 500, for the price of £19,99 and will also be available online at www.wru.co.uk. and other selected WRU Under Armour stockists.

"Brains have shown ingenuity in previous seasons with their 'Brawn' and 'Brawn Again' logos and the idea has always been very popular with Wales fans," said WRU head of marketing Gwyn Dolphin.

"T-shirts have been produced in the past, but they have never been made generally available to fans and we fully expect the limited edition range to become a must have item for discerning Wales followers."

Richard Davies, Sales and Marketing Director at Brains explains: "This is the third time we've been presented with a shirt change for the French game, which we've always seen as an opportunity. We knew we had to do something different this year but that we still had to have fun with it. At a marketing team ideas session we went through several options before hitting upon what we believe to be our best link back to our main brand , SA."