Rossiter slams Nowlan Park surface in the wake of Springsteen concert

Keith Rossiter says he “couldn’t believe” the condition of the Nowlan Park pitch after the recent Bruce Springsteen concert, with a section of the playing surface still bare.

Springsteen played the venue on May 12, but the damage was done the following day by a crane used to remove the stage at the O’Loughlin Gaels end amid heavy rainfall.

Asked about a contentious penalty awarded to Kilkenny, the Wexford boss insisted: “I’d need to look back – it was on the right side of the field because if it was the other side of the field, you wouldn’t have seen any sign of a line with the amount of damage done with the concert.

“How that can happen I don’t know, to be honest, before a big championship match. I saw a picture of it during the week and I saw a picture at about 11 o’clock this morning, I couldn’t believe it. But it is what it is, we would have gladly played in Wexford Park, which is a good sod at the minute, but I don’t think Kilkenny were going to change.

“But Bruce had to be played, I suppose. They had to dance in the dark up here for a couple of days but the pitch was the one to suffer.”

The penalty, dispatched by TJ Reid, seemed to be awarded by Liam Gordon for a foul on Eoin Cody outside the 21-metre line. Gordon issued no black card, the only offence for which a penalty can be awarded in that position.

“I suppose I was disappointed by the way it came about in relation to the position of where it was,” Rossiter said, declining to complain. “Once the referee spreads out his two arms, there’s no argument from me, there’s not much I can do.

Elsewhere, Waterford manager Davy Fitzgerald remained coy over his future in the county after their Munster SHC exit to Limerick. But he used his postmatch platform to double down on any suggestion that there was division in their dressing room in 2024.

“I know that we’re right back up there in touching distance with most of them,” he said. “The last ten minutes today isn’t a reflection of what this Waterford team has been like in the championship. I do think it’s an injustice that we’re out of it and I’m disappointed.”