Blues’pitchbattleafterhospitaldamage

CARDIFF Blues have been forced to replace the entire £400,000 3G playing surface at the Arms Park after damage caused by its role in the Dragon’s Heart Hospital, writes JON DOEL.

The ground became part of the neighbouring Principality Stadium field hospital operation in March to help deal with the fight against coronavirus, but was decommissioned last month.

And inspections of the surface have found issues caused by power generators and other equipment are so severe a full new artificial surface is required.

It means the Blues won’t be able to play there until at least the end of November, but they could well be absent until next year. The team will play home matches at Rodney

Parade in Newport during that time. The surface was installed back in 2013 and is used by a number of teams and community groups, as well as the PRO14 side.

The cost of the new surface will be covered by insurance.

Chief executive Richard Holland told a fans’ Q&A on Wednesday: “We handed over the pitch to the NHS to be part of the Dragon’s Heart Hospital and, unfortunately, due to the longevity of the generators and the marquees and everything else that went into supporting the hospital it has done some damage to the pitch which means we are going to have to put a new surface in.

“As it stands all of our fixtures until the end of November will now be played at Rodney Parade.

“We are waiting for our suppliers to give us a timeline and it may be until the end of December that we’re not able to get on the Arms Park.

“The only positive is that the surface at Rodney Parade is fantastic.”

Cardiff Blues stalwart Josh Turnbull has been handed a three-week ban following his red card against Zebre last Friday night.

The back-rower was sent off after 43 minutes of the 16-6 win over Zebre after his shoulder made contact with the head of Maxime Mbanda in a tackle. It’s now been confirmed that Turnbull won’t be available for the region until November 3, after he was deemed to have committed an act of foul play.

The judiciary hearing concluded the act warranted a mid-range offence.