Ospreys ban spray tans and coloured boots

The Ospreys have banned players from having spray tans and coloured boots in an attempt to shed the club’s “Galacticos” tag.

With the departure of high-profile names, or the so-called “pretty boys” such as Gavin Henson and James Hook, the Liberty Stadium side, based in Swansea, want to create headlines based on their performances on the pitch rather than for any beauty rituals or fashion statements.

Players are now not allowed to have a spray tan and must not wear coloured boots – unless they have earned the right to do so. The substance over style approach has been introduced so the side can represent the south-west Wales region “in the right way”.

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Coach Sean Holley said: “The fake tan and the coloured boots and the ‘Galacticos’ label doesn’t interest us really.

“We’ve banned the tan. It’s real tan only. And you are only allowed to wear coloured boots if you’ve played over 50 times for the Ospreys or over 15 times for your country.

“We feel that you have to earn the respect, you have to earn the right to do something. We want to work hard, we want to represent our region properly. We don’t want to be false or misrepresented.”

It looks as if the new rules have been paying off so far. The Ospreys, who boast a number of youngsters in their ranks this season, have won six of their first seven league matches and top the RaboDirect Pro12 table.

“We are trying to get good people, good young lads through who represent us well and I think we are achieving that at the start of the season,” Holley added.

“You can see by the likes of the people who have re-signed, Shane [Williams], Alun Wyn, Adam, Ryan [all Jones]. These sort of people are the mainstay. Duncan [Jones], Paul [James], Huw Bennett, Jonathan Thomas, the list goes on. They are still good international players, but they are the cornerstone of what we want to be represented as.

“I think a lot of our good has been understated in the past.

“A lot of the expectations we’ve had placed upon us have been a little bit misplaced in some of the terminology used.

“We’ve still got good players. We’ve just tried to shift the cultural emphasis on representing our region as best we can.”

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