Rugby: RFU surprised by shirt ruling

The English Rugby Football Union are considering an appeal after losing their High Court case against leading shirt manufacturers Cotton Traders.

RFU chief executive Francis Baron admitted he was ‘‘surprised’’ by today’s verdict, which centred around the use of the red rose by Cotton Traders after the expiry of the agreement to manufacture official England shirts.

The ‘England Rose’ was updated in 1998, but the case concerns the fact that Cotton Traders continued to use the pre-1997 ‘Rose’ on their rugby jerseys.

The RFU believed Cotton Traders were infringing their trademark, but the High Court thought otherwise and found against them and current shirt makers Nike.

Costs for the case, which has been on-going for the past two years, are likely to run into several hundreds of thousand euro. The outcome also means victory for England Rugby chairman Fran Cotton, who owns the company.

‘‘We have been given leave to appeal, and the RFU management board will look at the judgment carefully tomorrow,’’ said Baron.

‘‘We are obviously disappointed and not a little surprised at the judgment.’’