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New Zealand rugby bosses are bemused that the jersey farce was ever allowed to happen.
Warnings of a potential colour clash were raised weeks before the tournament and yet a decision on what jersey the All Blacks would wear for their most important match in four years was made only hours before kick-off.
NZRU boss Chris Moller made two separate submissions to the International Rugby Board - the World Cup organisers - in the past year about his concerns too many countries were meddling with their jerseys.
Moller's second submission came after he saw England play against Wales in a red jersey just weeks before the World Cup started. Wales traditionally play in red, England white and Moller felt the issue needed to be addressed.
He also aired his fears there could be colour clashes between a number of nations at the World Cup.
In addition to Moller's submissions, all participating countries at the World Cup had to send sample jerseys to the IRB.
The organisers were supposed to check the jerseys to ensure logos conformed with tournament rules and also determine possible colour clashes.
New Zealand's silver jersey was submitted, as it was for the 2003 World Cup when there was no cause to use it.
But the IRB, who were the only people who knew precisely what each country's first and second choice jerseys looked like, failed to pick that New Zealand's alternate grey would clash with Scotland's preferred blue.
Following the fiasco at Murrayfield during the pool rounds, New Zealand's rugby bosses were confident the IRB would realise that another colour clash loomed with France, as both All Black jerseys were close in colour to the inky-blue of the French.
However, the IRB decided to follow tournament rules, tossed a coin on Tuesday and allowed the winner to choose which shirt they would wear. France won, giving them the right to wear their blue jersey even though there were concerns about the similarity of New Zealand's alternate grey jersey.
But there was still no confirmation about who would wear what as British broadcast rights holder, ITV, wanted to test how the grey and blue contrasted on television.
Amateur club players in Cardiff were kitted out in the two jerseys and filmed playing a game.
Still no decision was reached after the testing and the matter remained in abeyance until 9pm last night when it was announced the All Blacks would wear their silver/grey strip - less than 12 hours before the game.
Graham Henry, quizzed about the jersey fiasco, would only say: "We have no concerns about that. I think we are going to wear silver."
The French will thus wear their dark blue strip after winning the toss to decide the matter recently - but will now wear white shorts and white socks as a compromise.
