THE PITCH

[kwik-silva]

TBH, we shouldnt have rugby games at madejski. We are a top championship club and we shouldnt have to put up with a torn up pitch caused by the egg chasers. Our home games are vital and if our players struggle to play it on the deck then we have a disadvantage at home. I say move all youth games to other pitches and kick London Irish out of OUR stadium.

Vicarage Road are home to the Saracans and Watford and have no problems, that I know of. They've paid to use the stadium and thats now extended to 2010 so there's no point complaining about it.

[Sun Tzu]

I say move all youth games to other pitches and kick London Irish out of OUR stadium.

ALmost all youth games RAE played elsewhere. I believe the rules of the FA Youth cup mean that clubs have to use their home stadium for games in that competition.

The London Irish comment is just daft.

The whole thread is a bit crazy considering there has been no sign of any problems with the pitch. Cosmetically it may have been a bit patchy at the weekend but it had no impact on the way the game was played.

[yuomi]

weekend game was played on near-waterlogged pitch. as already mentioned we arent the only team to share with egg chasers without any serious adverse effects to our form. and, lets face it, thats the most important thing.

[MR. CYNICAL]

No,the London Irish comment was not daft at all.
I've always maintained you should'nt play rugby on a football pitch at this level!

[West Stand Man]

No,the London Irish comment was not daft at all.
I've always maintained you should'nt play rugby on a football pitch at this level!

Are you suggesting that we should slip down a level then, because the rugby is here to stay?

[Wycombe Royal]

TBH, we shouldnt have rugby games at madejski. We are a top championship club and we shouldnt have to put up with a torn up pitch caused by the egg chasers. Our home games are vital and if our players struggle to play it on the deck then we have a disadvantage at home. I say move all youth games to other pitches and kick London Irish out of OUR stadium.

Vicarage Road are home to the Saracans and Watford and have no problems, that I know of. They've paid to use the stadium and thats now extended to 2010 so there's no point complaining about it.

2010? I thought the last extension agreed was to something like 2026????

[yuomi]

exactly. there is no sense ridding ourselves of a financially lucrative groundshare partner if the worst we can say of them is they leave a bit of a mess in their wake. plus it does seem to suit our game to have a slightly less than perfect playing surface.

we can be like Luton '85 with their artificial pitch, noone'll know how to play us at home...

[West Stand Man]

exactly. there is no sense ridding ourselves of a financially lucrative groundshare partner if the worst we can say of them is they leave a bit of a mess in their wake. plus it does seem to suit our game to have a slightly less than perfect playing surface.

we can be like Luton '85 with their artificial pitch, noone'll know how to play us at home...

Oh dear. It is still a perfect playing surface, it just doesn't have much grass on it. Do keep up with the thread if you want to play the game. The whole point of the Desso system is that the surface stays good and even when the grass wears thin.

[gh7901]

Do we not have this same moan every year? Or every time we've had some bad weather rather?

Yeah it didnt look great but it didnt cut up so who cares? Compared to a sunday league pitch, the surface is amazing

[Stranded]

No,the London Irish comment was not daft at all.
I've always maintained you should'nt play rugby on a football pitch at this level!

Well 18 years before LI leave on we could get relegated to help you out otherwise get used to it.

The rugby has little or no negative effect on the state of the pitch, esp with the new laws in the game this year meaning the game is more open. The majority of the game involves players in boots running around.

The only bits of the pitch that could cut up are the corners and the majority of the "problems" seemed to be in the centre of the park.

[kwik-silva]

TBH, we shouldnt have rugby games at madejski. We are a top championship club and we shouldnt have to put up with a torn up pitch caused by the egg chasers. Our home games are vital and if our players struggle to play it on the deck then we have a disadvantage at home. I say move all youth games to other pitches and kick London Irish out of OUR stadium.

Vicarage Road are home to the Saracans and Watford and have no problems, that I know of. They've paid to use the stadium and thats now extended to 2010 so there's no point complaining about it.

2010? I thought the last extension agreed was to something like 2026????

I have no idea, I just knew it was a while Couldn't remember how long though

[Sun Tzu]

No,the London Irish comment was not daft at all.
I've always maintained you should'nt play rugby on a football pitch at this level!

The fact that someone has said something consistently doesn't mean it isn't daft !!

In some countries they play rugby on test cricket grounds, there is no reason why we can't cope with rugby on a football ground especially when the pitch is designed to take the wear.

[rabidbee]

Well, to my ignorant eye, the only problem with the pitch on Saturday was that the water made it a bit quick, so players had a tendancy to overhit the ball. It was obviously cutting up a bit, but no worse than you'd expect on a wet day in december.

[Sun Tzu]

And bizarrely lots of clubs water their pitches pre match precisely to increase the pace of the ball off the pitch !

[rabidbee]

It's not that bizarre to water a dry pitch to give it a little bit of zip.

[Sun Tzu]

Indeed, the art of irony is dead !

Of course clubs don't just water dry pitchs, you see the sprinklers on at all sorts of times of the year.

The point was rather that having a wet pitch is something actively worked for rather than being a problem.....

[Skyline]

Vicarage Road are home to the Saracans and Watford and have no problems, that I know of.

Catching up on the highlights of the weekend matches yesterday, I'd say that Vicarage Road's pitch looked, if anything, much worse than ours did on Saturday.

[T.R.O.L.I.]

Vicarage Road are home to the Saracans and Watford and have no problems, that I know of.

Catching up on the highlights of the weekend matches yesterday, I'd say that Vicarage Road's pitch looked, if anything, much worse than ours did on Saturday.

I thought the same when I saw the highlights on Sunday - the player taking the corner before one of the goals (scored at the opposite end to the away end) kicked up so much water it was laughable.

[rabidbee]

Indeed, the art of irony is dead !

Sorry, it was so long since I last spotted it on Hob Nob it doesn't even occur to me anymore.

[rabidbee]

I personally think that people are only making a fuss about the pitch because The Championship did.