Artificial Surfaces
“There are no excuses not to play good rugby on it. It is just a bit alien to everyone else - at the moment!”
Steve Taylor, Captain, Darlington RUFC
with Darlington, club secretary David Hall is relishing their visit. “For teams that like to stick the ball up their shirt and battle their way through, this is not the sort of place they want to play,” David said. “But, for Darlington, it is the ideal sort of ground because they like to play good, attractive, running rugby. It should be a great game, and we’ll have to be at the top of our game to get anything.”
As it turned out, the green and whites of Gosforth went on to narrowly beat Darlington in a tense 27-24 win and, despite the outcome, there were no sour grapes from visiting skipper Steve Taylor. “It beats playing on a shitty, muddy surface,” he said. “It is a lot more consistent. It might be an advantage to Gosforth in that it is relatively alien to
everyone else. I am not saying that had anything to do with them beating us, but it has to give them an edge. I don’t want it to sound like an excuse, but I think it is a reasonable claim.” “A few of our players said they slipped on it more than a normal surface but, in terms of playing the game compared to other pitches in the league that are consistently soaking wet and are like a bog, that also helps that home team because they are more used to it.” In terms of safety, Steve sees no obvious issues. “Last year one of our lads got some rubber in his eye and it blew up and he had to go to hospital, I sprained my ankle on it, but not significantly,” he said.
“I personally noticed that there appears to be one of two more injuries on that
surface than others, but it could be that we are, maybe, just a bit more conscious of it when someone does get injured, because it is on ‘that’ surface compared to others. Because you hear the rumours, you are possibly looking at it more. I have hurt my ankle on other occasions, but would never blame it on the surface when it is grass. Last year, a big percentage of us had carpet burns, which are absolutely horrendous but, this year, there didn’t seem to be an issue with it. Maybe that’s because we played terribly last year and kept going to ground.”
“Overall, I believe it gives Gosforth a slight advantage, but it is a very good surface to play on. There are no excuses not to play good rugby on it. It is just a bit alien to everyone else - at the moment!”
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