Tigers were famous for their lettered shirts – including the ABC front row – up to the final years of the 20th Century when all clubs were requested to use numbers in the early years of professionalism.
Club chairman Peter Tom CBE said: “An international fixture on home soil is an historic occasion for the club and the perfect fixture to reflect our roots with the use of lettered shirts.”
The lettered shirts are to be sold after the match with the proceeds going to worthy causes.
Director of rugby Richard Cockerill has also introduced letters to the front of Tigers playing shirts this season, sitting between the club badge and the logo of main sponsors Caterpillar.
“I wanted to keep some of the great traditions of the club and putting the letters on the shirts is a good way of doing that,” said Cockerill, a famous member off the ABC Club front row in the 1990s.
“When we bring in players or guys come out of the Academy and step up into the first team, we can point to the letters on the shirts and tell them about the players they are following and the standards they set wearing those shirts.
“It’s great to be able to wear the lettered shirts for the Australia game too.
“Not many clubs have the opportunity to play against national teams and it is the history of this club that gets us into a position to be able to do that.
“We hold the traditions of the game close to our hearts and having the letters is a great way of showing it.”
Tigers welcome the Wallabies to Welford Road on November 9, hoping to emulate the victory over reigning world champions South Africa last autumn. Tickets for the fixture are available now. Contact the Tigers ticket hotline on 0844 856 1880, click here book online at www.leicestertigers.com or call in at the Tigers ticket office (open 8.30am-5pm weekdays, until 8pm on Wednesdays and 9am-5pm Saturdays).
