Adidas RS15 Pro Review: Are Kolisi, Sacha, & Dupont’s Boots Actually Good?

Praise has to be given to Adidas for giving their rugby-specific boot segment a lot of effort. Where other brands simply brand the SG football boots as ‘rugby boots’, Adidas is dedicated to making its rugby boot division a key part of its catalogue.

And we’ve had some superb boots from the rugby line in recent years, with the Adidas Malice Control and Predator Malice both being fantastic entries (you can check out our reviews of those here), and the brand has evolved that silo into the RS15 — a boot geared towards loose forwards and backline players that many of the world’s best players, such as Siya Kolisi, Beauden Barrett, and Antoine Dupoint all wear.

Where in previous years Adidas had the Malice (built for kickers due to the grip elements on the upper) and the RS7 (lighter and simpler, built for outside backs), the company has just squished those two boots into one: the RS15, providing something that gives kickers a lot of surface area and grip, while also being lightweight and agile.

The result is a really interesting boot that ticks a lot of boxes. Starting with the upper, the Pro model comes in a leather variant (there’s also a synthetic version known as the RS15 Ultimate), but the leather itself is extremely soft and squishy, but also quite thick and padded. This undoubtedly helps with some of the more close-encounters you often experience in rugby, providing more comfort, ball impact absorption, and (thankfully) less damage if your toes get stepped on.

There’s a really nice tongue and asymmetric lacing system offset to the lateral side and this is done so that there’s a bigger and more uninterrupted striking surface on the top and medial side of the boot (where you’ll most commonly be kicking a rugby ball). To highlight this, the RS15 doesn’t have such radical grip elements like the small rubber spikes seen on previous Malice models, but does have some more grooves and texturing to provide a little bit of stickiness and manipulation when hitting the ball.

The soleplate is an interesting part of the boot, because as Adidas continues to build and evolve their rugby boot segment, they are still borrowing a lot from other football models they have available. The soleplate is the same that you’d find on Adidas’ X CrazyFast range, with the SG featuring bladed, chevron-like studs to compliment the metal studs, and the FG edition featuring an all-bladed stud layout.

Now, it’s a good soleplate and stud pattern and does the job, giving a lot of bite and stability whichever option you go for (SG or FG), but it would’ve been good to see Adidas try something unique on the boots rather than borrow from the football line-up. That said, they more than do the job, so if it ain’t broke…

From a fit and feel perspective, while the boots have a speed boot DNA to them due to the CrazyFast soleplate being slapped onto the RS15, they very much still feel like thicker, more durable boots like that of the previous Malice iterations. This creates quite a nice juxtaposition for players looking for something that’s sturdy on foot and offers a bit more protection while still delivering a lightweight feel and snappiness to the soleplate to make them at least feel a little faster.

Ultimately, the RS15 Pro is a really solid boot that utilises some of the best bits from Adidas’ Predator and CrazyFast boots of yesteryear, while adding a few unique elements, like an asymmetric lacing system and leather upper, to create something unique. They come with a notable price-tag, but for someone who wants premium comfort and performance for a season or two, it’s hard not to recommend splashing out on the Adidas RS15 Pro.

The Adidas RS15 Pro are available from Adidas for R4,599.