England may drop change strips for future autumn Tests after purple kit controversy The move comes after RFU chief executive Ian Ritchie admitted to being "surprised" by the extent of the negative reaction to the regal purple kit worn during the defeat by Australia last month. England have worn change kits for the past five seasons in one of their autumn Test matches, a policy that has attracted criticism for devaluing the team's traditions and for being purely based on commercial motives given that there was no clash of colours with the opposition. While sales of the change kits have proved successful, with this season's version accounting for almost 40 per cent of all shirt sales, its critics included former England internationals, who questioned whether it affected the team's performance. Ritchie pledged he would "listen and learn" to the reaction and confirmed England would wear white during this season's Six Nations Championship. "You always look at it," Ritchie said. I'm quite happy to say one was surprised in some way by the strength of feeling and I think it was correlated, if I could put it that way, to the performance. I don't remember reading huge criticism for the last five years about a change of shirt. But the substance of the point is a fair one. All of us look at these things and review it.