The Sunday Times - UK (2022-04-10)

28 April 10, 2022The Sunday Times

Sport

Nowell tackles

Gloucester’s Jason

Woodward on the

Kingsholm 3G and,

below, presents

burns to prove it

NATHAN STIRK/GETTY

O

ver the years I’ve

developed an aversion to

watching rugby union

played on artificial grass.

Something about the tempo

of the game on synthetic

surfaces and the way the

ball bounces just isn’t right.

Football knew what it was doing

when banning them from the

professional game in 1995. Certainly

with rugby you don’t have to look

closely to see there is also a serious

welfare issue.

Players routinely suffer burns and

gashes on these surfaces. Often the

cuts become infected by the loose

rubber particles used in the

construction of these pitches. Then

there are the non-contact injuries

that happen on artificial surfaces,

caused by players getting a foot

caught in the mixture of plastic and

rubber.

High speed collisions and falls are

an intrinsic part of rugby and artificial

surfaces allow the players to run

faster and so the collisions can be

more violent. Occasionally a player

will fall on synthetic grass, say for

example after being ankle-tapped,

and the impact caused by their head

hitting the ground can be frightening.

Clubs with artificial grass pitches

claim they are no more likely than

grass to cause injury. The official view

is that the science is inconclusive and

extensive research has delivered

conflicting results. Early designs were

associated with increased injury risk

to athletes. Those studies found

raised levels of various injuries

including ACL and concussion. The

problems of increased incidence of

chronic back pain were highlighted

across a number of sports.

“More recent literature on the

merits of natural grass against

modern synthetic alternatives is more

equivocal in its results,” says

Professor Bill Ribbans, an

orthopaedic surgeon who has worked

with Northampton Saints and is

author of Knife in the Fast Lane, which

charts the history of medical care for

sports people.

“However, researchers and

commentators have been fairly

consistent throughout the decades

that players prefer natural grass. The

athletes’ perception is that [on

artificial pitches] they are more prone

to musculoskeletal injury, post-

activity muscle soreness, non-contact

injuries, and increased risk of skin

abrasions with infection risks.”

Much of the literature is based on

studies of American sport. The RFU’s

chief medical officer, Simon Kemp,

co-authored a paper in 2016 reporting

an eight times increased risk of

abrasions on synthetic surfaces in

rugby union. They also reported an

increase in muscle soreness in the

four days after games. However, the

authors could not establish an overall

increase in injury risk but advised the

need for larger studies.

A 2022 study from Nottingham

looked at injuries in elite rugby. They

compared natural grass with hybrid

and fully synthetic surfaces. They

found double the overall injury

incidence in matches played on

hybrid and synthetic surfaces even

though the playing surface did not

affect the severity of match injuries. A

hybrid surface (natural grass

combined with three per cent

synthetic fibres) was associated with a

four times increased likelihood of

non-contact injuries.

Underpinning the choice of

synthetic over natural is that artificial

pitches are easy to maintain and can

withstand high usage. A grass pitch

might allow a weekly five hours’ use

whereas an artificial pitch can be

used for up to 50 hours. Artificial

pitches are also easy to maintain.

Commercially, they work. The case

against their use rests on the evidence

of those who play on them.

Joe Marler, the Harlequins and

England prop, posted a message on

social media in September saying

artificial pitches should be banned.

His England team-mate Henry Slade

supported that call and Slade’s Exeter

Chiefs and England colleague Jack

Nowell has long been opposed to the

use of synthetic surfaces. “I can’t

stand them,” Nowell told The Offload

podcast.

“I’m in a position now that I can

play on them but when I was younger

I struggled quite a bit with patellar

tendonitis. I had that op [operation]

done eventually. So I’m kind of in a

position to play on them, but they’re

just not nice. It’s not worth putting

players at risk over it. I know there

are studies that come out saying

there’s not a lot more risk on them,

but I reckon that’s got to be complete

rubbish.”

Na moment of

brilliance gets

barely a ripple

from ‘patrons’

in the galleries

Let me tell a story from beside the

11th green at Amen Corner near the

end of the second round of the

Masters on Friday evening. Kevin

Na had hit a decent drive into the

middle of the fairway. This is the

second toughest hole on the course

and for this year’s tournament the

players discovered that the tee had

been moved to the left and the hole

lengthened from 505 to 520 yards.

That’s a par five at most clubs.

It’s a par four here and the

approach shot is to a green guarded

by Rae’s Creek. Ben Hogan

famously said that if you see his

second shot on the 11th green, it

means he mis-hit the shot. For Na,

the hole is particularly difficult.

With an average driving distance of

289 yards, he is not one of the long

hitters on the PGA Tour.

So late on Friday afternoon his

ball sat 30 yards behind those of his

playing partners, Shane Lowry and

Max Homa. Na would have had

something like 235 yards to the

flagstick, which was front right and

about seven yards beyond the

water. Na then hit the most brilliant

long iron, aiming for the bank to the

right of the green.

His ball landed on precisely the

right part of the bank and began a

slow trickle towards the hole. He

could have played another 200

shots from the same spot and

wouldn’t have hit a better one. The

ball came to rest only four feet

beyond the hole. I stood in the

middle of a packed gallery and

clapped but, mostly, there was

barely a ripple of applause. I

confess to thinking: “What is it with

these people?”

Around here they call them

patrons. Whatever they are, many

are not aficionados of the game.

They have no great understanding

of golf and little appreciation of its

finer points. Somehow they’ve

been offered the opportunity to

come to the Masters and feel it’s

something they should do. The

Masters is more than a golf

tournament. Being able to say

you’ve been there works well at

dinner parties.

This is why you will hear players,

especially the United States ones,

say how much they enjoy the fans at

the Open Championship. Those

who make the annual pilgrimage to

the Open do so out of a love of the

game and a deep appreciation of

how difficult it is.

Most of them

play golf, they

know a good

shot when they

see one and are

not slow to

acknowledge it.

Bristol Bears director of rugby Pat

Lam said something similar after the

Bears had played on Worcester

Warriors’ artificial pitch. “We’ve

played two games there now and

three guys have ended up with

surgery and other niggles — Piers

O’Conor has sprained his ankle and I

know [Worcester’s] Jamie Shillcock

did his. We’re not having great luck

there, we’ve come away with some

big injuries on that surface.

“I’m just talking facts. One guy got

a knee injury just stepping and

another guy a high ankle sprain, so he

had surgery. If you have a look, Toby

Fricker just went to step and his knee

gave way, which was similar to the

game before and then Piers went to

step.”

Lam understates the case when he

says players “enjoy the grass”. Most

seriously dislike playing on artificial

pitches because even if they avoid

burns, gashes and musculoskeletal

injury, they still feel far more stiff and

sore than they would after a game on

grass. It shouldn’t be considered

irrelevant that from the players’ point

of view, games on grass are just more

enjoyable.

Three years ago, the Rugby Players

Association asked for a moratorium

on the development of any new

artificial pitches until more studies

were done. They were ignored. After

Odell Beckham Jr’s non-contact

injury at the Super Bowl in February a

number of high profile NFL players

called for artificial pitches to be

banned. They too are likely to be

ignored.

Sports always talk about player

welfare but when it comes to

important decisions, commercial

welfare is the real priority.

David

Walsh

Players have started

speaking out about the

injuries they suffer on

artificial pitches — it

is time rugby

put their welfare

above commercial

interests and all

clubs went

back to grass

Na deserved

greater credit

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