POLICE are investigating after 40 rugby shirts belonging to Snowdown Colliery Welfare RC were stolen from the back of a player's car.

Flanker Matt Evans, 20, had both the first XV and second XV club kits in his boot when he parked his car at 10pm on Monday in Old Dover Road, Canterbury.

The red and blue striped shirts, bought only in October, are worth more than £1,000 and with the club's badge embroidered on the chest are useless to all but a Snowdown squad member.

"I was visiting a friend in hospital who had just had a baby," said Mr Evans, of Milner Crescent, Aylesham. "I didn't get back until about 2am by which time the two small side windows had been smashed.

"Both the kit bags had been taken, a blue and a black one, with about 20 shirts in each.

"They all have blue and red stripes with numbers stitched on the back and the badge on the front. But the first team shirts also have our sponsor's name, Sharpak, right across the middle."

The thief also took personal possessions of Mr Evans worth around £600, including 100 CDs, Christmas presents and his passport.

The Snowdown club, whose players nearly all live in Aylesham, has an old set of shirts to kit their players out for matches this Saturday.

But second team manager Carl "Atom" Burns is hopeful the stolen shirts will turn up. He said: "You couldn't shift that lot this side of London. They've got our club badge stitched on the front and everyone knows Snowdown Colliery Welfare Rugby Club. But it is a right pain."

Police have tested Mr Evans's beige Ford Escort for fingerprints. Anyone with information is askdd to call them on 01227 762055 or Crimestoppers free and confidentially on 0800 555 111.