Pitch palaver enough to make you paranoid

THERE has been a huge amount of fuss in the last few weeks over the 3G pitch at Sardis Road, home of Pontypridd RFC. Following a game there between Merthyr RFC and RGC, which saw Merthyr knocked out of the cup, Merthyr coach Lee Jarvis tweeted pictures of injuries that he complained his players had received from the playing surface.

The media, who, it seems, are determined to stir the rivalry between the two clubs and turn it into an all-out war, picked up on this and for some reason best known to themselves the WRU decided that action must be taken.

Inspections of the pitch were ordered and games which were due to be played at the ground were cancelled. Why they took this action remains a mystery. Merthyr said they were not making a complaint and dissociated themselves from Jarvis’ actions. RGC said they had no issue with the pitch. So on the basis of a couple of comments on Twitter they took action which has cost the club a substantial amount of money.

The debacle is still ongoing, but there are surely more questions to be asked.

Nobody is denying that there are lots of burn-type injuries on these artificial surfaces, but the pitch was installed by a firm that also did them at Merthyr and Cardiff and many, many other venues. There are plenty of photos of such injuries on other pitches on social media, but they seem to be ignored.

Rhondda Cynon Taff Council partfunded the pitch at Sardis, and at the same time commissioned pitches in Pentre, The Graig and Mountain Ash. Have these pitches been closed and subjected to the same level of rigorous testing? Us Ponty fans are often accused of being paranoid about the motives of the WRU and others, but when things like this happen then it really does make you wonder. Karen Roberts RCT Lib Dems