Now, by way of balance, some ammo for those who say ignorant foreigners wouldn’t know a silver fern from a white feather.
Seems the Welsh artist who designed the programme for the All Blacks v Neath and Aberavon match in 1954 was not steeped in the icons of his country’s national game.
Perhaps things were busy in the studio that day. Perhaps his boss had given him a quick peek at an All Black jersey, and he’d concluded, with somewhat curious logic, that the mighty All Blacks played under the international symbol of cowardice.
Had he been a rugby fan, he’d have known that the only team that wears white feathers is Wales – as shown on this souvenir jersey from their last win over New Zealand earlier in the same tour.
The three white Prince of Wales feathers and the silver fern, memento of the Wales/NZ rugby test, Cardiff, 1953.
(Our feathered enemy won 13-8.)
John Ansell 
