I've played American Football on 3G Pitches twice in the last year, the biggest difference between them and grass wasn't when you hit the ground but how your knees felt afterwards. There's a lot less spring in the pitch, so it shakes them up quite badly. One lad on the team can't play on any artificial pitches now, cause of a knee reconstruction he had 3 years ago, it's too painful.

I may be wrong, but I'm sure I heard that an i-pitch was being laid at Saints' new ground too.

Yet again another daft idea for the world of super league

I fear for the players safety on these pitches,pity is it will take 3 players getting there careers ruined before it gets ripped up

Reffed on these pitches I was like bambi on ice on it,at halftime half the players were complaing of the lovely black bits in there eyes and ears

Think the only reason the o connor bloke wants it is so he can park his lorries on it during the week

I'm pretty sure the 3g / 5g stuff people have experience of playing on is different to what is being installed at Widnes.

The 3G is very hard on the joints, seen loads of injuries when people have been playing on them. I hope this pitch is rather more advanced.

The soccer pitches are not really mixes of plastic and grass in the way that some people think, they dont have blades of grass mixed in with blades of plastic. They just put down a plastic mesh so that the grass grows through the gaps. The plastic just improves the binding. The Widnes pitch sounds completely different.

Yes they do , the Keepmoat , Wembley and the LSV have pitches that are primarily grass with individual plastic blades stiched into them at set intervals , I watched the machine doing it

It doesn't really matter what the top layer is whether it be synthetic,grass or any combination of the two - the secret is in the drainage and the substrata
You can hav the most expensive Astroturf on the market but if the substrata isn't done correctly then you will end with a dogs dinner like the Millenium Stadium playing surface.

artificial as in plastic oh the irony.

That nearly worked as a joke Luke

Did I miss someone making the hugely predictable 'artificial pitch for an artificial SL club' jibe?

Jealousy get's you nowhere.

You'd be better off concentrating on Leigh and their next three years rather than Widnes.