RUGBY LEAGUE
S
alford Red Devils of rugby league and Sale Sharks of union share tenancy at the 12,000 seater AJ Bell Stadium, which is owned as a joint venture between Salford City Council and
investors Peer Group.
Dr Marwan Koukash, who was raised in diffi cult circumstances in Palestine and Jordan before beginning his successful professional life in St. Helens, recently sold the rugby league side and off ered to write off much of the debt owed to him. Sale’s rugby union side, meanwhile, have recently been taken over by a local acquisitions fi rm called CorpAcq Ltd., who have emphasised giving fi rst team starts to young players. At the time of writing, Sale were fi nishing their winter season strongly, whilst the Red Devils were struggling to play their way out a Super League middle-eights relegation play-off . The rugby league and rugby union seasons overlap these days, and the punishing schedule means they’ve only been able to turn the turf once in the seven years Dan has been around.
Around sixty players and referees per week spend 80-minute sessions tearing around on the turf. Dan said: “It has its moments when it’s taxing.” “With weather-related training ground diffi culty this past year, the on-pitch training is one of those. It can make for a stressful time on that turnaround.” The pitch is a Fiberlok construction, but with frequent introduction of sand, the team are essentially converting it to the sought-after Fibresand type.
“It’s a good pitch,” Dan said, “but there were just a few issues with the mix of the fi bre into the profi le during construction. The mix came as a concentrate and was laid on top rather than being fed in fully. We added over 300 tonnes of sand to raise the profi le above the fi bres.”
The Sale-born groundsman is more of a football man than a fan of either rugby code, which avoids the diplomatic issue of bias accusations faced by some cross-code groundspersons. His team comprises Connor, the deputy head, and groundspersons
Expectations on grounds staff are higher these days, because the industry has
improved so much. A pat on the back is nice but, when I look at my pitch, I see its faults
PC August/September 2018 83
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