Bristol Rugby will return to playing in England's top-level competition, the Aviva Premiership, next season under a new name as Bristol Bears, with a new kit, new name and new brand!
The news comes little more than a week since Bristol's promotion back into the Aviva Premiership was confirmed, with Ealing Trailfinders no longer being promotion contenders with three rounds to play on the 7th April - giving Bristol Championship victory!
Bristol had previously undergone a 'rebrand', playing as the Bristol Shoguns between 2001 and 2005 following a sponsorship deal with Mitsubishi, but this move seems to be a more permanent sort of affair, with owner Steve Lansdown saying that the process of rebranding the club had been in the pipeworks for quite some time.
With Bath, Exeter Chiefs, Gloucester & Worcester all fairly close to Bristol, the move is hoping to make Bristol a more appealing club both on the field and off. Lansdown has explained that since the turn of the professional era, supporters, local competitors and homegrown talent have all migrated to the bigger and more successful clubs; and this change seeks to both stop and reverse that.
The move also sees the club playing in some pretty nice looking kits (see below), and will probably rival Gloucester and Bath as some of the clubs with the nicest playing strips.
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