Hello there rugby fans!
This week I would like to talk about pitches....artificial ones that is......You mean you did not know that rugby can be played on artificial surfaces?
My club Moseley Rugby have had a Third Generation Rubber Crumb artificial training pitch at Billesley Common for 5 or 6 years.
About 3 years ago the England 19 Group Schools Rugby held their trial on Moseley's artificial pitch when traditional grass pitches were unplayable due to frost....that is the beauty of 3G Rubber Crumb pitches.....they guarantee that a game will be played as frost and rain do not affect them.
I watched the highlights of the first rugby game in England played on an artificial pitch at Allianz Park, Saracens new home in Hendon, North London on ITV4's Aviva Premiership Highlights show presented by Martin Bayfield and Craig Doyle.
'Little and Large' or 'Bayf's' as he is known stands 6 feet 10 in his cotton socks and was a British Lion on the 1993 NZ Lions Tour when Grant Fox kicked us to death and won the series for the AB's are much better than ESPN's Mark Durden-Smith, the son of Cliff Michelmore and Judith Chalmers in case you did not know, and 'Motormouth Austin Healey and 'I dropped the World Cup' Ben Kay and their unbridled Leicester bias.........
Mind you for me nobody beats the peerless John Inverdale who I met 5 years ago when he hosted the 'Insider Midlands Property Awards' at the Hilton Metropole at the NEC......John was a very funny and engaging host that night talking to a bunch of property guys who enjoy their rugby on the whole.....well John, someone had to do it.....at least it wasn't the 'Neasden Budgerigar Fanciers Convention Dinner' at the 'Wheeltappers and Shunters Social Club'.......Colin Crompton probably was a shoe-in for that one.........?
John is a genuinely nice guy and what I liked about John is the fact that strangely for a rugby presenter he has actually played the game of rugby........... Typically for a rugby man when I took the mickey about his club Esher (where he was Director of Rugby at one time) whom my club Moseley had just beaten and condemned to the then Championship relegation play-offs, John gave as good as he got and had a go back which was great....and I really respected him for it. It was real rugby banter from a genuine rugby man with the game in his blood......Quite literally almost!
Indeed John Inverdale gave blood for his club when he was kicked in the head when captaining Esher Vets XV some years ago. The kick resulted in over 30 stitches and John took the cowardly perpetrator to court and won his case.
The idiot who assaulted him on the field was convicted of GBH and fined and sentenced to Community Service...Well done John! You used your notoriety to strike a blow for the ordinary guy who is the victim of on-field rugby violence which has largely been stamped out at the elite level due to the all-pervasive TV cameras.
Players who are the victims of on-field assaults usually have no come-back unless they stupidly retaliate on the field.....the publicity round this case hopefully made the thugs who despoil our game in part think twice before committing their cowardly assaults.
Back to the subject under discussion artificial surfaces for rugby.....the one used in last weekend's game did not result in any injuries and made for a much faster game, akin to the end of season games when pitches are harder and the games faster with more handling and less kicking and in consequence higher scoring which is what all spectators want......more tries!
One other result of artificial pitches is that with the lack of muddy surfaces, the underfoot conditions for props which often causes collapsed scrums when they lose their footing are a thing of the past with the consequent lack of re-set scrums meaning the game is faster and the ball is in play for a longer time.
New artificial surfaces mean that players can concentrate on their core skills and that there is a 'level playing field' with the team who can execute their core skills best usually ending up the victors.
Mud and rain do not affect artificial pitches as much as they do ordinary grass pitches so that the best team with the most skillful players will usually win and that the lack of mud means that a poor team who 'play the conditions' better do not usually win.
For me artificial pitches have to be the way forward, with the almost cast-iron guarantee that a game will be played due to the nature of the pitches and therefore no need for expensive under-soil pitch heating.
The commercial aspect also comes into play for clubs investing in artificial surfaces. Stadia have to be used all year round not just every other weekend in the winter.
The difficulties of staging events on grass is largely avoided with artificial surfaces. This wet summer several music festivals had to be cancelled due to muddy conditions underfoot.....this would not happen with a rubber crumb surface.
This means that events like Pop concerts, car boots or markets and lots of diverse outdoor events like festivals could be staged at stadia with artificial surfaces increasing commercial revenues for clubs with artificial pitches.
So long as the new generation of artificial pitches do not cause any injuries then I am all for it......bring them on!
On to our 6 Nations preview......this weekend at 5pm England take on the French at Twickenham.
England go into this game on the back of two consecutive wins, the most convincing being the away win against Ireland in Dublin, a feat achieved for the first time in 10 years by this young English team of tyros.......
There are no selection issues....the only decision that Stuart Lancaster has to make is whether to bring in Manu Tuilagi back in from the start teamed with either Brad Barritt or Billy Twelvetrees....a nice situation to be in.
My hunch is that Lancaster will stick with the starting duo of Barritt and Twelvetrees, and bring Tuilagi on in the last 20 minutes as a battering ram when French legs are tired.....Mind you I would pay good money to see a confrontation between Bastareaud and Tuilagi in the centre.....the hits would be seismic with two such 'big-hitters' in direct opposition......'Awesome action in prospect'!
I take England to win at home by 10-15 points but it will be tougher than many pundits predict as the French are a proud nation and those 'cheese-eating surrender monkeys' will not want to surrender and 'Ils ne passeront pas!' will be the French battle cry....'They shall not pass!'
This Saturday Italy play Wales in the first game of the weekend at the Stadio Olimpico at 2.30pm
For me a win for the Welsh.
England should beat Italy on Sunday 10th March at Twickenham.
That victory should set up a Grand Slam showdown, provided Wales can prevail against a resurgent Scotland at Murrayfield on Saturday 9th March with the England Grand Slam showdown game on Saturday 16th March at the Millennium Stadium......a mouth-watering prospect I am sure you will agree, with the Welsh wanting to be Grand Slam 'party-poopers' for England's bid for Grand Slam glory.
Italy play Ireland at 2.30 again in the Stadio Olimpico, a proper venue for a growing Italian team.....and 'after the Lord Mayor's Show' France play Scotland at the Stade de France at 8pm in a very disappointing campaign for the French and an encouraging one for the resurgent Scots.........The French will want to end on a high in possibly their worst 6 Nations for many years in prospect.....?
Bring it On.........!!!!!!!
Keith Bracey, presenter of new Rugby Show: 'In the Clubhouse' on Sports Radio Birmingham at www.sports-radio.co.uk on Tuesday evenings at 8pm
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