Anybody watch the red button highlights of the Leeds V Hull KR match, the pitch was awful. I know the Tykes play there too but it resembled a beach again. Maybe they have been parking cars on there again.

Was the same last year

Groundsmen on top dollar to come up with a surface like that, what a joke.

its like that at the start of every season.no cars on it when the cricket season is over.

They play union mud wrestling on it all winter so thats why its dire.

Interested to see how this Widnes pitch surface is liked or disliked. No way of it happening in Leeds though, the South Stand plan has been axed due to lack of finance so the playing surface has no chance. Suppose to be the best ground in rugby league.... i think not.

Well mathers is having a cry on twitter about the pitch saying its a absolute joke and his elbows and knees are cut up .

Bloody Hell(bow) Mathers.



(Nice to see the first try of the season coming from a familiar source as well)

I personally wouldn't like to play on Widnes pitch. You could see that quite a few of the players were very reluctant to turn or stop abruptly at tonights match.

I wonder how they go on with studs ? Can they grip the surface at all ?

Well injuries caused will be a bigger determining factor than grazes. I told Mathers than he should just have put a pair of jeggings on and he'd have been reet.

Widnes' injury record will be interesting to see as the season goes on.

I'm sure we had a semi artificial pitch at one point, but there were lots of injuries to football players and Hock and O'Loughlin both doing their knee ligaments . From what I remember, it was said the injuries were caused by studs getting snagged in some netting below the surface? I didn't like the iPitch... You could clearly see many players with cuts and burns on their knees and elbows.

The original pitch was some sort of hybrid that was meant to be able to withstand heavy usage.

Unfortunately, despite being told, they didn't dig down deep enough with the drainage nor did they raise the pitch enough and so it gets flooded every year and that's why it's constantly poor.

I've had a massive weeping scab on my knee all week from a 3g pitch. That was from soccer, wouldn't like to play rugby on one.

Why don't they wear protective bandages on elbows and knees. They wouldn't have to be cumbersome. I expect we will see this happening as the season wears on.

That's quite common in modern grass pitches. The fantastic pitch at the Etihad Stadium has a plastic thread woven into the turf to stop it breaking up. I don't know how deep it is but it would have to be fairly shallow for it to work.

We'll see what effect that has on rugby in May.