Scottish Rugby is making the biggest single investment in its Murrayfield home since the stadium was reconstructed in 1994.
A new hybrid grass pitch will be installed later this year to be ready for the start of the 2014-15 season, it was announced today.
SRU
“We are doing this primarily because this hybrid pitch is widely recognised as the best grass surface in the sporting world and we all want to see the Murrayfield playing surface restored to the pristine condition for which it is renowned,” said Scottish Rugby’s Director of Management Services, Mark Laidlaw.
Artificial fibres
The Desso Grassmaster hybrid grass pitch is a natural sports grass pitch, which is reinforced by millions of artificial turf fibres.
“This results in a high-specification pitch providing the feel and performance of natural grass with the stability of an artificial pitch,” Laidlaw explained.
One of the key advantages of the Desso Grassmaster pitch is that it has a faster recovery than natural grass alone and that it can be used intensively, hosting more than 40 fixtures in a season.
“This is an investment that will safeguard international rugby on Murrayfield’s hallowed pitch but will also enable us to be in the market seeking out major sporting events to bring to our stadium,” said Scottish Rugby’s Director of Commercial Operations, Communications and Public Affairs, Dominic McKay.
The new pitch will be based on the system already installed at such celebrated sporting citadels as the San Siro Stadium in Milan; Annfield at Liverpool FC; Manchester City’s Etihad Stadium; Manchester United’s Old Trafford; Arsenal’s Emirates’ Stadium; and Wembley.
In the rugby world, Twickenham, the Aviva Stadium in Dublin, Newlands in Cape Town, the Nelson Mandela Stadium in Port Elizabeth and the Forsyth Barr Stadium in Dunedin all have the pitch installed.
Fast-paced
Scotland’s cap and points’ record-holder Chris Paterson said: “One of the best surfaces I played on was the pitch at the Liberty Stadium, which sees heavy usage as both the Ospreys and Swansea City FC play there.
“It’s a Desso Grassmaster pitch – a great surface that lends itself to a fast-paced game.”
Laidlaw added: “We are making this significant investment because, as we’ve said previously, we are concerned at the problems our pitch and others within the UK and beyond have experienced of late and feel that a reinforced surface is now required to meet the demands of professional rugby.
“We have been affected by a parasitic infection this season and the challenges of keeping Murrayfield accessible in probably the most challenging rugby climate in the northern hemisphere.”
Work on the project will begin later this spring with a view to the new surface being ready for the start of next season.
Well well well. An international union doing something right for the game.
Hats off to the SRU.
Now please invite the WRU and FFR board members to have a look at your investigations.
Such a pitch would be ideal for the Millenium Stadium because it requires far less sunlight.
The pitch in Dunedin is totally covered ALL THE TIME, but the roof of the stadium (which I believe was developed and made by a SA company) allows for the “correct” type of natural light to filter through and allow growth of the “real” grass.
What is interesting though is that the stadium has open “air vents” on all four corners that allow for wind to pass over the pich aiding the “real” grass to grow aqequately.
I am surprised to hear that the soccer stadia mentioned all have hybrid pitches though. I wasn’t aware that FIFA had sanctioned the use of them. I know that pure “astroturf” pitches were banned as they produce a totally different ball bounce to natural grass.
Just goes to show the advancements that have been made.
As far as the cost of the new pitch is concerned, surely the total return on investment must actually be cheaper than continually having to patch up and repair the “natural” grass pitch that continually needs “fixing”.
Of course, any permission granted to use an artificial pitch for Rugby is only granted for a 2 year period.
Thereafter it must be re-tested to confirm that it still conforms to the required standard.
I would imagine that this is to check primarily for compaction of the sub-strata which if excessive, could present a danger in terms of potential injury.
I see also that Ellis Park has had an issue with their pitch recently with the game(s) against the Leopards last week being moved to Barnard Stadium because of it.
In fact in the last few seasons the Ellis Park pitch has been quite patchy and seemed to be almost “sandy” underneath with it cutting up quite badly a few seasons ago.
One would have expected that with a lot less Rugby having been played on the surface in the last 12 month that it would have had a chance to develop a really good root system that should hold up well for the upcoming season.
I guess we’ll see on Friday night when the Sharks visit.
Hybrid pitch Mr de Klerk? (Oh k@k, no major sponsors so probably not.)
@ Scrumdown:
Gosh you sure seem to know your stuff regarding these things, is this the kind of work you are involved in Scrumdown? Don’t know much about lawn myself other than that it needs to be cut more than once a week in our summer but thankfully for a long period over winter doesn’t need to be cut and that it is easily invested with moss growth. As far as my tatties go I just through them in and hope they grow, build the soil up around them some time and then wait and see if they survive the blight that we get too often.
6 @ Bullscot:
No it’s nothing to do with what I do for a living.
I just like to keep up to date with what’s going on in Rugby.
I study the rules and any changes (in both Rugby and Golf) avidly, and research things that crop up from time to time in my spare time.
The rules and regulations are easily accessible on the IRB website, with a downloadable handbook that is very usefull as a reference.
When I was on the Lions Chairman’s Council and also advising the Swaziland Rugby Union on assesing their constitution and their club league structure I had a wonderful opportunity to travel extensively throughout Europe, (not through the Lions I might add), and met some really great people involved with Rugby in such little (Rugby) places as Denmark and Germany.
Here in one of the “powerhouses” of world Rugby (SA) the majority of so called supporters have absolutely no idea what’s going on in world Rugby outside of the top 5 -7 Rugby playing countries.
As an example did you know that the IRB member country with the highest number of players (combined junior and senior) per 100 000 population in 2010 was……. Swaziland?
In 2009 alone Swaziland introduced over 10 000 kids to the game of Rugby. That’s 10 000 out of a total population of just over 1 000 000.
And that with almost no income.
Germany has a thriving club league, mainly driven by UK ex-pats, but well supported by Germans.
So much to learn and know, but unfortunately these days, so little time to do so.
I’m scathing of the inefficiencies of bodies like SARU, because I see the likes of the Swaziland Rugby Union surviving and GROWING THEIR PLAYER BASE on scraps and hand outs and the dedication of a “few good men”.
Enough of the “soap box”.
Just glad the SRU have made such a bold and forward thinking decision.
6 @ Scrumdown:
Very very interesting man, think could spend a long time listening to all you have experienced through rugby, didn’t know those facts about Swaziland, I guess too often in this professional era we focus on the teams at the top of the tree where there should be far more interest in grass roots. Just to be able to one day see the parks around here full of youngsters playing casual rugby would be a treat. As it is whenever I see the local touch rugby team practising at the field, where I also see the city’s Scottish Premier League practise, down near the beach ‘kry ek lekker’. Am not one to knock any particular sport too much as for me its important that folk are out there enjoying the sport at whatever level they are at.
6 @ Scrumdown:
Good to see you praising the SRU for this move, it is good news following our disappointing start to the 6 Nations which doesn’t get easier with England coming up next. At least there was good news about another national team of ours – Scotland winning the qualifying tournament for the next ODI Cricket World Cup which was held in New Zealand, it has been way too long since Scotland was at a Cricket World Cup. Think I heard that Scotland will be in England’s group for that.
This is a longer term investment but am not sure where the funding is going to come from in the short term, must be a loan of some sorts, this year will see possibly see a drop in revenue from last year with only 2 home Six Nations tests compared to 3 last year, plus there was a bit of extra money coming into the coffers for the British and Irish Lions tests. Maybe some of that extra money from last year will be available to help fund this. A lot of revenue will have been lost this season as well due to the flooding of Glasgow Warriors home ground and the late call off of two games earlier especially the derby match at New Year.
9 @ Bullscot:
Do the club matches contribute financially to the SRU?
8 @ Bullscot:
The SRU, like SARU are the custodians of the game in their region.
How can they adequately promote the game if their international games are being played on a surface that looks like a mud bath and is being criticised by all and sundry?
The SRU have obviously seen that in order to attract youngsters to Rugby, htey have to have a vision of running out onto Murrayfield in a glorious condition to “fight” for your country.
It’s hard to do that when the pitch looks so bad.
So once again, hat’s off to them. A positive move for the future.
10 @ Scrumdown:
Honestly couldn’t tell as I’ve not looked at the yearly SRU financial statements that closely to see how the income/expenditure is broken down. But purely based on numbers of attendance I would think that the international matches are the big earners. Don’t know exactly how it works but the SRU has the main stake, possibly even total ownership now, of the two professional teams we have – Glasgow and Edinburgh. Glasgow’s home ground would be full with about 6000 people I think. They do get money for competing in RabboDirect Pro12 and Heineken Cup and obviously all the other sponsorship deals they have. Running Murrayfield must cost a lot and I think this is why they have Edinburgh playing their club games their rather than in a smaller stadium that would generate more atmosphere, Murrayfield can seem very big and empty on Edinburgh match days, even the big 1872 Cup derby game against Glasgow on Boxing Day only had a crowd of around 10 125, this in a stadium of 67 500 capacity.
Below the level of Edinburgh and Glasgow it is hard to see how much money can be brought into the SRU coffers, they have to support this financially I’m sure, there are obviously membership fees and small gate takings but I think the cost of running a team must be high. Hats off to the SRU though, they do have various initiatives to try help lower level club rugby for example one I went along to just before the start of this season where they encourage volunteers down to local clubs to help spruce up the clubs and maybe buy some food etc there to help cover costs, they also use their players and past players like Chris Paterson, who was at the club we went to, to run mini training session with the youngsters on these days – you should have seen Paterson he was having a ball playing touch rugby, a guy with so much enthusiasm for the game. I have also published articles here on RT before about scheme the SRU has in conjunction with the law bodies in which they get a sum of money obtained from catching criminals that they then distribute among various clubs – its called CashBack for Communities if you are interested in reading about it.
Scotland team to face England at Murrayfield will be announced at lunchtime (UK) tomorrow.
Brisbane – An Australian cricket fan who disguised a pig as a baby for the Ashes Test at the Gabba ground was on Wednesday ordered to attend mediation with the RSPCA.
David Gunn, 33, was charged with animal cruelty after the pet pig, wrapped in a towel with its snout taped shut, was seen in the Brisbane stadium during the opening day of the first Australia-England Test in November.
In a statement to the court, the RSPCA said the pig, named Ash, was traumatised by the incident and dehydrated after being in direct sunlight on a hot day.
Gunn was ordered to attend mediation with the animal welfare charity, spokesperson Michael Beatty saying in his experience this involved sitting the person down and trying to make them understand how their actions affected the pig.
Ash has since made a full recovery
…
who in his right mind names a pig ASH?
Good to the Scots doing something positive. Amazing how one of the smaller rugby playing countries show up their bigger counterparts. Well done SRU.
As to the points by Scrumdown on the Swazi Rugby Union, I stand amazed. Again, why don’t SARU look to see how the Swazis draw black kids to the game?
Ash, maybe it was a good looking piglet?
14 @ Ashley:
Bwahahahaha!
15 @ Lion4ever:
Good old fashioned hard work and getting out there and holding clinics etc.
Administrators with tracksuits on in a beat up old Landcruiser and not an Armani suit and first class BA tickets to Dublin.
You can wrap some people up in expensive Italian suits, but at the end of the day they still smell like a bag of sh1t tied up in the middle.
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