Advertising feature

Let’s face it, rugby smells of the endurance and pain required to compete at the highest level – but now a bunch of fans, with the involvement of some key players, have set out to change this perception. We sit down with a bottle of aftershave, The Rugby Fragrance, to see how it feels about the challenge…

The Rugby Fragrance – good to finally meet you.

Always a pleasure.

So what’s this all about?

Scoring some man points.

Could you elaborate a little further?

Our game is played by real men and this is often overlooked in the world of customer profiling and mass media. Seeing adverts of weedy guys spraying a blast of some rubbish and becoming undeniably attractive to the opposite sex seems a little far fetched to me. A man is meant to smell musky, woodsy, fresh – not of Belgian vanilla chocolate or whatever ‘scents’ they are putting out right now.

We see you are also affiliated with some legendary players and charities…

Both Ronan O’Gara and Serge Betsen have become great supporters of our work. They believe in what we are doing and are giving something back to the game for the fans that have to sometimes settle for scents often made for gentlemen who maybe play the sport with the round ball. We also have a charitable angle, with Wooden Spoon in the UK and Ireland benefiting from our sales.

So in a nutshell, you are giving back to the game?

We love rugby and saw an opportunity to grow a loyal fan base of people who also love this tremendous sport. We initially went for a small boutique batch operation, but people love me and it looks like I’ll be around for a while now.

With Christmas rapidly approaching – do you think you’ll be under a few trees?

Heavy nights out you mean?

Christmas trees…

Oh, sorry. Without doubt – the ladies love me, the gift market for husbands, boyfriends, dads and so on has really got our product in front of die-hard fans. I can’t thank them enough; it’s nice to feel the love.

I think we’ll leave it there. Thanks for your time.

Always a pleasure – would you like a quick smell?

The Rugby Fragrance, priced at £19.99, is available in leading UK high street stores or with free shipping from therugbyfragrance.com. For a chance to win a bottle, click here.

For the latest Rugby World subscription offers, click here.