Artificial Pitches – Good for the Game?
The initial fear with 3G pitches, a reservation we certainly held three or four years ago was how they might increase injury. With years of research and testing, they are now IRB approved and increasingly being adopted across elite, community and school clubs as the initial fears on player welfare and injury appear to have been dispelled.
An area I’m sure many of us can relate to is arriving at pre-season and seeing the beautifully prepared snooker top style pitches and rubbing your hands together at playing some free flowing and exciting rugby. The idea of knowing we’d still be playing on such a surface several months into the season would be fantastic. I speak though as a former centre who used to enjoy the fast paced, free flowing style of rugby… a member of the front row might not hold quite the same excitement.
As mouth-watering a prospect it may appear to some it doesn’t reduce some of the brilliant variations and nuances within the game. It is no coincidence so many South Africa versus Australia Test Matches revolve around the South African dominance of the set-piece and collision against the vision and free flowing style of the Australian backs. – It would be interesting to know how much of this is a result of coaching, playing style and culture, and how much is a result of the pitches used.
Style of play aside imagine this for a moment; a 3G artificial pitch able to significantly reduce injury, with lower injury rates than games played on grass. Imagine a surface which could cushion impacts and reduce head injuries and rates of concussion, currently the biggest black mark in rugby’s copybook.
I’ll go a stage further, picture artificial pitches operating on a lease-style basis, which can be laid then rolled up again after a few weeks or months. Would this enable the game to be played during all conditions, and enable all levels to train and play without the requirement for mass initial investment and infrastructure. This would surely have a positive impact on skill-set and dramatically increase involvement.
If we moved to a world where the majority of pitches were artificial we can see the game evolving and players becoming increasingly similar in both size and athleticism. Would this mean the game would become more generic and lose some of its variety and greatness?
That said, if this is the price we pay for having more people playing the game, with lower rates of injury and a more open and free flowing style is this a problem?
