It is not only the Vodacom Bulls, who feel pretty in pink, the All Blacks do too!

The Pink Brigade have infiltrated the All Blacks and Israel Dagg is chuffed.

stuff.co.nz

As part of a marketing campaign with sponsor adidas fullback Dagg and first five-eighth Dan Carter have designed trainings strips using the apparel company’s “customisation tool”.

The results of Dagg’s efforts were dazzling – almost literally – but only a sprinkling of backs were game enough to wear his pink colours during training at Westpac Stadium today.

While Carter maintained true to his Canterbury roots with a conservative ensemble of white shorts topped by a red and blue, the adventurous Dagg had little hesitation in jazzing up his collection.

“It’s a beautiful colour,” Dagg said when defending his penchant for pastels.

He then added captain Richie McCaw wasn’t going to allow his forwards to be draped in such gaudy garb.

“Obviously the skipper had a word and said ‘the forwards aren’t wearing that’ but most of the backline wore it except for Richie and his brutal machines.”

Ma’a Nonu, Cory Jane, Julian Savea, Aaron Smith and Aaron Cruden joined Dagg in dressing in pink.

Dagg reckoned flankers Liam Messam and Victor Vito were sorely tempted to join in the fun until their captain gave them the death stare.

“Victor and Liam had it on but then Richie gave them a look and they had to take it off … Express yourself, that is what the All Blacks is about,” Dagg added.

Dagg and Carter were invited by adidas to trial the latest version of a tool called miTeam to create the one-off strips for their team-mates.

The All Blacks have been in Wellington since last Saturday as they prepare to play Argentina at Westpac Stadium on Saturday night.

Messam acknowledged that when some members of pack reached for bright colours they were stared-down by McCaw.

No words, not even a shake of the head were required to make Messam and Vito think otherwise.

“He looked at me and Vic. Obviously pink looks good on the brown brothers (but) Richie sort of looked at us and we knew better.”

Halfback Piri Weepu, who opted for Carter’s less-creative combination, was succinct in why he preferred not to join his backline team-mates who reached for pink.

“No, it doesn’t bring out my eyes like ‘CJ’ (Jane) and Izzy (Dagg).”

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