I think its working well, the game is being played in a great style for me, love it.

It certainly does speed the game up and makes for an entertaining spectacle, the players will be stinging in the morning though.

Use to play on solid pitches in winter when I were a lad, are they all softies?

Lots of what look like 'burn grazes' to elbows and knees.

Leigh East's pitch has never grazed or cut me

The slug was going on about lack of studs. I thought studs were allowed on these pitches. I know my sons footie team play on them in studs.

it looks fantastic and makes for a very fast game but grazes and friction burns seem inevitable. it might look soft but tights and long sleeved undershirts might be the order of the day especially in the winter

Do you have to refer to him as the slug? It's very distasteful and makes you look like a horrible person.

No, you're not allowed studs. At least you never have when I've played on them.

They will be using moulded studs so there will be a certain amount of grip. Stick some Vas on elbows and knees and the grazes won't be a problem.

the bounce does look very unpredictable and thats going to be a massive advantage to widnes as they get more and more accustomed to the surface

it certainly lends itself to quick,fast flowing RL......its like a june,july,august pitch

Since when does a Rugby ball bounce ' predictably ' ?

Ok ill call him the fat useless fecker who wasted 3 years of my clubs development.

And you can wear studs as I've already said my sons wear them as their school has the same pitch.

Apparently, cramp is now a sign the pitch is crap.

There is nothing wrong with a forward orientated game, we are not playing feckin' basketball.

It'll look like WWE Royal Rumble next week with all the knee and elbow pads on show



Will the Widnes players last the season with their kneecaps intact?

Maybe it was your club at fault, look at the success he had at Saints. Can't polish a turd comes to mind. It's narrow minded people like yourself who caused this man unreasonable and unacceptable stress and unhappiness, as a responsible adult I would have expected better. How would you like to be bullied into mental health issues by 6,000 people? Although this is Salford, 6000 might be generous.

Maybe you're son has a different variation at his school. I have played on this exact type of pitch and was not allowed to wear studs.

You say that, but I reckon the pitch has cost Widnes two tries tonight. On a normal pitch the ball would have carried to the corner for Ah Van to score and then again quite near the end when Marsh chipped over.

I have to agree that it did speed the game up and make it much better, so on that score it gets the thumbs up. It might just be me being soft, nowt new there then, but as I've already said when I played on the one at Leigh East I was covered in grazes that would stick to my jeans when enjoying a pint afterwards. Not the most comfortable I've ever been I must admit.

Seem's as though the Wakey weren't too keen on it either as they've reported it to the match commissionaire although what good that's going to do I don't know.

I thought he was talking about studs not digging in the same way they would with grass/soil, rather than there being no studs.

For me I thought it went well in terms of the speed and quality of the game. Much better than the Crusaders-Leeds opener from a couple of years ago. As for the elbow/knee burns, I don't know if there were more than you'd get off a dry pitch in summer. It's not as though no-one ever gets grass burns, and it's much better than breaking your ankle in a divot hole. It'd be a shame if they had to lose the pitch, as it's such a key part of Widnes' revenue generation from the stadium.

Nothing wrong with the way the pitch plays, rugby balls bounce randomly no matter what the surface, the only issue is the burns,grazes to knees and elbows , and ultimatley it is Widnes who will bear the brunt of that playing on it every other week, it is they who will have the problem

Selling plasma

I must say I did notice a lot of bloody elbows. I don't whether anyone else picked up on this?

prehaps bounce is misleading its the roll and carry of the ball which seems different to a grass pitch. the ball seemed to hold up like it would on a sodden pitch. the widnes no try when ah van pulled back was a good example, the wakey cover got caught out by the strange movement of the ball

prehaps bounce is misleading its the roll and carry of the ball which seems different to a grass pitch. the ball seemed to hold up like it would on a sodden pitch. the widnes no try when ah van pulled back was a good example, the wakey cover got caught out by the strange movement of the ball