The Pitch

Uncle Mort · Post by **Uncle Mort** » March 6th, 2006, 9:26 am

Am I the only one shocked at the state of the pitch - do the branch know about laws to do with exposing employees to danger at work? Do they care?

sheepshagger · Post by **sheepshagger** » March 6th, 2006, 9:35 am

I could'nt believe the appauling state of the ground. . . .it actually suited the match yesterday - Rubbish.

Seems half a million euros doesnt go far enough these days (when you let what seems to be every schoolboy in the province play on it).

Joke.

Colm · Post by **Colm** » March 6th, 2006, 9:56 am

Was standing beside Cheika in the warm-up and he was going nuts at the groundsman. He was saying that Connacht had every right to be concerned about the pitch.

Flash Gordon · Post by **Flash Gordon** » March 6th, 2006, 9:57 am

sheepshagger wrote:I could'nt believe the appauling state of the ground. . . .it actually suited the match yesterday - Rubbish.

Seems half a million euros doesnt go far enough these days (when you let what seems to be every schoolboy in the province play on it).

Joke.

It was dangerous. The backs were slipping and scrums were even going down because the forwards couldn't get grip. We were lucky there weren't any serious injuries.....

We played badly yesterday, but there's no way we could have played the type of rugby that would have got us a bonus point win on that surface.....

As Sheepshagger says, total joke.

Colm · Post by **Colm** » March 6th, 2006, 10:02 am

Also ... Felipe's try nearly wasn't a try as **surprise** he slipped and just about managed to gain his footing.

thecoolfreak · Post by **thecoolfreak** » March 6th, 2006, 10:38 am

(when you let what seems to be every schoolboy in the province play on it).

When they were getting the new pitch last summer surely they made it claer to the supplier that the pitch would be used for a large number of games this year. We really should be blaming the suppliers instead of the schoolboys.

Hers's another idea. Maybe the groundsman is just plain cr@p at his job. Isn't it a bit of a coincidence that the pitch was shite last year and it is shite again this year

Flash Gordon · Post by **Flash Gordon** » March 6th, 2006, 10:52 am

That was what we were told.....people say all kinds of things to justify significant investments. Have to say I was surprised to hear that at the time. I'm not aware of any pitch that is required to take the level of play that Donnybrook does.....

I'd rather we played at Lansdowne than go through that again....

Slipper1 · Post by **Slipper1** » March 6th, 2006, 10:53 am

Having had a couple of "run outs" on the surface it isint that bad to play on as it looks - However it is not as we were promised.

With the work done last season taking up the summer break - the grass was not given enough time to bed in as was recommended - the problem apparently is not that there are too many games but that the games started too early on it.

The suppliers recommended a longer growing period to the branch which was not listened too.

This summer break will give it a longer time to mature and we should see a better surface as a result. We can all see the "bedding" that is coming up (it is more obvious on the back pitch - like horse hair) the roots are still in the ground and are / will grow around this to give a stronger bind to the soil.

Their main difficulty is under the stand which gets no sun and cannot recover and dry out during the season.

Babbling 'brook

The Pitch

The state of the Donnybrook pitch is

The Pitch