Welsh rugby fans are to have their picture on players’ shirts throughout next year’s Six Nations tournament, the WRU has announced.
For a fee of £20, or £10 for the replacements, fans can have their own image appear on the backs of their favourite players.
The first ‘fan’ to sign up for the new scheme is former Wales winger Shane Wiliams – who recently retired from the international game.
The Ospreys and former British and Irish Lions wing wizard, who played his final match in Wales’ colours last weekend when he scored his national record 58th try in the dying seconds of the 24-18 defeat to Australia, joined nine-year-old Ifan Davies as the first fans to effectively sponsor the senior international wing berth.
Each player can have up to 2,000 or 4,000 fan pictures which will be printed in their shirt number.
If each player, including replacements, has the maximum number of pictures, the scheme would net the WRU £4 million over the course of five matches.
The pictures of fan’s faces will be of reduced size, but the images will remain visible on close inspection.
“Everyone knows my time has come as an international and part of me is now looking forward to being an enthusiastic spectator for the RBS 6 Nations just like everyone else,” said 34-year-old Williams, who called time on a distinguished 11-year career with a fitting try scoring climax at the Millennium Stadium last Saturday.
“I’m backing this group of players to go on to great things in the years ahead and someone like George, who at just 19 and with 16 caps and six tries already under his belt epitomises what this squad is now about.
“There is a great future ahead for Wales, but that future is not about me anymore. The likes of George, Alex Cuthbert, Leigh Halfpenny, Aled Brew and the many players that will come after them on the Welsh wings will now take up the mantle.
“It is nice to think that, for the RBS 6 Nations at least, there will still be a small part of me on the wing for Wales and I think this is a great way of being able to show support to the boys.
“The match day jersey is a very special and personal thing to a player, we know when we wear it we are just passing through and have a duty to the players who have worn it before us and those who will play in it after us, as well as to the fans who are watching, and this concept has a great symmetry with that idea.”
This latest WRU initiative is an historic move which will see Wales become the first national rugby team to have their jersey numbers made up of thousands of supporter photographs – following in the footsteps of world famous football clubs Seville and Granada in Spain and Porto in Portugal.