Artificial Pitches "not good for player welfare"

[ratsapprentice]

http://www.espn.co.uk/scrum/rugby/story/244029.html

Exeter coach Rob Baxter has questioned the long-term future of artificial pitches after he felt he had no choice but to omit winger Jack Nowell, who recently returned to action after 18 weeks out following knee surgery, for last week's game at Newcastle. Baxter said he feared Nowell could have struggled on Newcastle's new 4G surface.
"I am a bit concerned," Baxter told the Rugby Paper. "Personally, and speaking to players, the majority would prefer to play on grass [but] everyone has to toe the PR line, we're aware of that.

"These pitches are sanctioned by the IRB, but for some guys they're not good for player welfare and it's slightly frustrating.

"Jack's case was always going to be that way because he doesn't react well to playing on rubber-crumb and he's only just back fit as well. The combination of the two meant we weren't going to risk him at Newcastle."
Baxter was aware his comments could be view as sour grapes after Exeter lost, giving Newcastle their first Premiership win in almost a year. "It's frustrating, although I'm certainly not using it as an excuse for losing. But over a period of time I think there'll be a move towards standardising grass surfaces, especially when you see the quality of the Desso pitches you can have now.

"We've trained on our new Desso every day since we were back at Sandy Park and it's still like a carpet. It's not 100 per cent grass but you wouldn't know it by walking on it and the argument to have artificial surfaces is diminishing."

Gotta agree with him TBH - there are far too many people saying that they are worried about it for me to believe it's not a problem.
I know that Bath train on theirs only when they have to specifically because they are worried about injuries on it.

And besides... they look ****.

Desso is the future. (and the present)

 

[TRF_Olyy]

Yeah, I'm not surprised about this at all.
When Sarries got there's there were a lot of players unhappy about it on twitter, and Sarries players were picking up a lot more knee/ankle injuries than before on it.

 

[SelimNiai]

So what stadiums are Desso and what are artificial?

I know Liberty Stadium and Ashton Gate are Desso, I assume the new Millenium Stadium and Murrayfeild are Desso aswell. So Allianz Park and Kingston Park are artificial? Whats the Arms Park surface

 

[ratsapprentice]

Arms Park, Allianz and Kingston park are the only artificial rugby (Union) pitches in the UK afaik.

Desso pitches at Rugby Union stadiums the UK/Ire:

Twickenham
Millenium*
Murrayfield*
Madjeski
Adams Park
Wembley
Aviva
Liberty
Cardiff City

Full list here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desso_GrassMaster


I think people should understand that although the Desso pitches are "hybrid" they are still fundamentally real grass turf - just with some fibres inserted into it.
For all intents and purposes it is just a very durable regular grass surface.

*Obviously these are new and haven't been played on yet - the old pitches were regular grass surfaces I believe.

 

[SelimNiai]

Arms Park, Allianz and Kingston park are the only artificial rugby (Union) pitches in the UK afaik.

Desso pitches at Rugby Union stadiums the UK/Ire:

Twickenham
Millenium
Murrayfield
Madjeski
Adams Park
Wembley
Aviva
Liberty
Cardiff City

Full list here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desso_GrassMaster

Wow, didn't realise Desso is as widespread as that. Cheers.

 

[ratsapprentice]

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>Been kicking the ass out the E45 today!! <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/ArtificialPitchProblems?src=hash">#ArtificialPitchProblems</a> </p>&mdash; Matthew Kvesic (@mattkvesic) <a href="https://twitter.com/mattkvesic/status/521380010163466240">October 12, 2014</a></blockquote>
<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

 

[Draggs]

Wow, didn't realise Desso is as widespread as that. Cheers.

CCS is Desso, but no rugby on the field anymore. CAP is 100% artificial (FieldTurf)

 

[Rugbyboyo]

Yeah its polarizing situation. The 4G ones tend to be more dangerous whereas the Desso versions,
which are used by many soccer clubs, seem to have less of an affect on player welfare.

Interesting article http://sportsrants.com/uk/2014/08/23/rugby-embraces-artificialhybrid-pitch/

 

[dasNdanger]

This doesn't surprise me at all, and I certainly don't take it as 'sour grapes' for a lost game. Good thing is that just because the IRB approves of it now, that doesn't mean that they can't reverse or change their decision. (Anyone remember 'crouch, touch, pause, engage'?? )

das