I've played on pitches years ago where the temperature has been borderline freezing and always come away with cuts and grazes from the pitch. Whether its an ipitch or not it won't be immune from the elements due to water and the ground freezing underneath. I think the players may have a different opinion of it come summer time though.

Ask them it's up to each individual what they do.

It is interesting though that U20's do tend to wear some whereas first team don't!

There wasn't a single first teamer from out side wearing protective clothing yesterday. Proof enough for me that it isn't an issue. As enough people said on here in the past. It's our players playing on it every week so if there were still grazes and burns happening then surely our own players would be covered head to toe.

Not wanting to get into a slanging match about the ipitch, I was wondering is Widnes poor start partly because of the ipitch and that it is a major disadvantage to them?

From the games and footage that I have seen the ipitch seems to make for a really quick game which when you are a new team, struggling anyway to get up to the speed of super league, obviously isnt a good thing. Muddy pitches and bad conditions are a great leveller for poorer teams and Widnes havent got this with the ipitch. I would have certainly thought that playing on the ipitch would suit the likes of Wigan, Saints, Warrington, Leeds etc a damn site more than Widnes. Just a thought but I may be completely wrong.

There is probably quite a bit of truth to that. Against Leeds we did have a few long range tries scored against us, which might not have been scored on a heavy pitch. Also with Leeds not playing JJB, Peacock and Bailey on a boggy pitch Leeds might have struggled down the middle. Anytime we did put pressure on Leeds, however they were able to use their faster more agile players to get them out of trouble. I suppose the pitch might hinder us for the 1st few games, but the fact we're going to be playing on it every other week, may mean we're the ones who will be used to the faster pace than a lot of other teams - well here's hoping anyway.

I don't know if it was the pitch, poor defence or just class, but at times Rob Burrow was untouchable against us and I've got a feeling Tomkins will be exactly the same when we play Wigan.

*[ishudders at the prospect[/i