Saracens get go ahead for artificial pitch!

[Lomasney]

Just saw there on the Sarries homepage that they have been given the go ahead to build a synthetic pitch to play their home matches on! Surely the synthetic surface will have some effect on how the game is played, no?! Just a thought...

[Balla Boy]

RFU did a briefing on these recently - big direction of travel given the number of games being lost in the winter schedule.

Apparently they feel a bit odd when you land on them, but not like AstroTurf. Don't make any real difference to how people play, other than not cutting up under foot.

One of the Richmond girls that I used to coach said that they played on one recently and it was fine.

[SD13]

I feel sorry for the Sarries players. I train/ play on a synthetic pitch and I hate it so much. Destroys your knees, every time the 2nd XV are sent to the back ( natural ) pitch I thank every deity there is. Might being going overboard with this but I look forward to playing away. The only advantage I can think of is you can play a faster running type of rugby, but the weather here has something to do with that as well.

[Hugged Rugger]

I dont like or trust it

1385

[Thomond78]

Who'd have thought London Irish would lose the Race to Plastic...?

[bobbin]

Landsdowne back pitch is 'astro'. Anyone I know who has played on it loves it. Very rarely that you would cut up on it. It is a world away from the old hockey style astros.

[Talking Sense]

Landsdowne back pitch is 'astro'. Anyone I know who has played on it loves it. Very rarely that you would cut up on it. It is a world away from the old hockey style astros.

Really enjoyed playing there despite losing and getting boots filled with those tiny black grains. A very fast pitch, easy to get up off the ground fast and great for lineout jumping. Both teams played some good running rugby with clean ball and clean kits. Didn't get cut or scarred at all to my surprise.

[treatycity1]

less work for the horticultural engineers and their pitch forks at half time I reckon, it may be the way to go for the covered stadiums like MS, any info on the pitch at Landsdown road, I have heard the new roof is causing problems with growth.

[Bitter As A Lemon]

I feel sorry for the Sarries players. I train/ play on a synthetic pitch and I hate it so much. Destroys your knees, every time the 2nd XV are sent to the back ( natural ) pitch I thank every deity there is. Might being going overboard with this but I look forward to playing away. The only advantage I can think of is you can play a faster running type of rugby, but the weather here has something to do with that as well.

I would suggest that thy pitch you have to play on isn't the best surface then. The new 3G pitches will be all the rage in 5 years for professional sports across the board.

[Milester]

I heard of a lot of clubs complaining about the Garryowen artificial pitch.

Some clubs in Limerick even refused to play on it.

[Christy]

What type of impact will artificial pitches have on scrum's?. It may be a big home advantage to sarries.