Stade de Francais has not got undersoil heating either.........French are a total joke.

Terrible for those who travelled. Unfortunate situation. It's February and these things can clearly happen.

I think Vitch has come up with the best solution, the KC game played in France and rebook that mid week when they are here.

Longer term, Lets ditch Magic Weekend and start the season a little later. And Make Cats play their first 3 weeks or so away from France.

I always thought they should to a 2 home 2 away run over a season

For those of us who might have thought that the French couldn't organise a party in a place that brews alcoholic drinks, ffr13.com reports that today St Esteve (part of Les Catalans heritage) beat XIII Catalans 60-26 in an 18.30 kick off.

Especially when someone decides to water a freezing pitch with a ground temperature hovering around -5C and then neglects to put even basic preventative measures in place.

Maybe under soil heating should be added to the franchise criteria?
Can't believe in this day & age we are still getting top level games called off because of ice.
Even a cover of some sort would have prevented this fiasco.

I doubt that considering St Esteve and XIII Catalans are the same club. I also doubt that the match in question was being played at a venue capable of holding 9,000+ people.

Very much so. In the absence of under soil heating it's unlikely the pitch would have been playable anyway. Clearly a decision is required much earlier for Catalan games in the future.

Good idea Vitch sounds ideal,better than Hutchies stupid comment about playing it at KC,its Catalans home fixture and there is no way the RL will punish them by making them play away from home.

Yes lets cancel the magic weekend, challenge cup and four nations. Because after all one game was cancelled.
And while we are at change the football season to have a break between January and March because after all Portsmouth cancelled a game last week.
Talk about over reactions.

Read my post again, i said the magic weekend only

Nothing else.....

By removing a week and moving the start date, we could prob start end feb and finish late Oct (it'll rain no matter when at GF)

Headhunter you're half right, my mistake.

St Esteve Calatalns XIII beat Montpelier 60-26.

Perhaps the 'stadium' where the game was played doesn't hold 9000+ but what does that have to do with it except that the bigger the anticipated crowd and the further the away supporters have travelled, the more effort should be made to ensure the match is played.

Hull's match was called not off for reasons of 'crowd safety' but as a result of a basic failure to protect the playing surface.

Of course it if turns out that the Catalan's Stadium has a micro climate which prohibits such measures which were taken at sports grounds in the 50s and 60s I will stand corrected.

Saints managed it. Although it seems that might have come at some cost.

Rumour has it that it was apparent as early as Tuesday that the pitch would likely be unplayable. In fairness that would have been of limited benefit to travelling fans as airlines wouldn't have handed out refunds anyway, and budget tickets are difficult/expensive to change.

"Hull FC fans can hear very strong views of Shaun McRae in @HumbersideSport bulletins on Sunday and Mon morning on the Catalans postponement"

I agree it's shocking for those who travelled down there. If they've cocked the pitch up it's even worse. It will mean fewer fans booking Catalan game trips at this time of the year.

would be greatful if someone could post what he says as we wont be back till late monday night

Although I have sympathies for the fans and our players & officials. Some of you really do need a reality check.

Bearing in mind the usual ambient temperatures in Perpignan, it's doubtfull that the local authority (who actually own and run the stadium) have even considered investing in ground covers, heating etc, let alone the considerable investment required for undersoil heating. But just like a couple of years ago in England, when we were hit with the worst winter we'd seen for 20 years, everyone expects the local councils to have all the required equipment to cope with any contingency, stuck in a magical shed somewhere.

Yes there are questions to be asked about the pitch preparation and also the timing of the fitness to play decision. But at the end of the day it was the weather that caused the game to be called off. Adverse weather that happens very rarely and certainly doesn't justify massive public expense, just so a rugby match can go ahead.

Get fooking real

Both rugby pitches in Perpignan are really close together. The fact that one was playable and one was not, seems to point towards circumstances other than the weather.

the france ireland union game was called off with 6 minutes to go to kick off - the stadium in paris for the union game does not have undersoil heating as it is built in a former site where methane gas has been found in the past - a former tip presumably, so not allowed to have the heating under the pitch.

gwyllam lloyd was ranting about the french putting the sprinklers on the pitch during a period of sub zero temps, on humberside tonight, and that the fc staff are seething about the way the pitch was prepared (or lack of). don't think we have heard the last of this one by any means

Weather that apparently affected only one of the two grounds in Perpignan.

And the local council does, so I'm told, posses the equipment required. For some reason it wasn't used.

You get real!
We are talking about a top level professional sports club playing in the top division! Not a local park team.
With away fans & clubs spending thousands to get there.
So yes I do expect them to be able cover a pitch from frost & ice at the very least.

I don't know where St Esteve/XIII Catalan play but it's prefectly conceivable that one field may have been frozen while another might not have been. Tomorrow's Northern Rail Cup match at Hunslet is called off, as far as I know all other RL matches in West Yorkshire are taking place. The fact that Perpignan is in France doesn't mean that the physical process of a pitch freezing is any different, nor does it mean that they should somehow have been better prepared to deal with a week of sub-zero temperatures than clubs in England are. Some of the conspiracy theories on this thread are hilarious. If a pitch is frozen, it's frozen. It's better for the game to be called off than for the players to go out and potentially suffer severe injuries.

How the hell would they know that almost a week before

In 2003 Newcastle United travelled to Barcelona for a champions league group stage game. About 5 hours before kick off there was a down pour of biblical proportions and the game had to be called off, meaning many of the Newcastle fans who had travelled just for the game and were on flights back the following day had a wasted journey.

You know, sometimes, happens. As has already been stated, flights and hotels are a sunk cost. Covering the pitch would not have make a jot of difference.

Might be wrong, but a cursory check on Google suggest it's 2.5 miles away from the Stade Aime Girale.