Have they had tractor racing on it? I've just seen the tries from last nights game and the pitch looks a mess.

No just a load of donkeys

Its' an embarrassing disgrace. It is every year whilst the Union boys are still on it.

The Tykes had a game Thursday night didn't they?

Was it at home?

The pitch was shocking and sometimes there are excuses for things like this but, the whole country has had terrible weather and other stadiums also have more than one team on the pitch. It's really disapointing to see although I am sure it brought back some memories of old times.

Away at Ospreys i believe.

definitely away at ospreys, pitch was terrible but same for both sides

Yeh because we've never played RL in the mud before have we??

Wouldn't matter, we'd still get an A grade.

You?

given that our groundsman consistently wins best groundsmen awards not just within the game but elsewhere to, i think we would gladly accept another point to our franchise application

Rugby union is a bit different to football in terms of damage to the pitch.

Yup, and we've never played RL in old stadia before...

Well I don't know how they're judging them but they obviously must inspect the pitch in the RU off season.

These were taken during last Fridays Leeds Carnegie v Saracens match just to give you an idea

Article posted on therhinos.co.uk a few weeks ago.

The Headingley Carnegie groundstaff have been trying to rectify the damage caused by the winter weather ahead of the new engage Super League season.
Leeds Rhinos will play their first home game of the new season on Friday 5th February against Castleford Tigers and Head Groundman Jason Booth has asked fans for understanding when they look at the state of the pitch at present.

In order to get the Cravendale Festive Challenge and Matt Diskin’s testimonial game on the pitch was twice cleared of heavy snowfall during the height of the winter freeze. Whilst both games went ahead successfully the damage done is now been dealt with by the groundstaff.

This week 20 tonnes of sand have been spread on the pitch and a 14 inch vertidrain spike has been used to try and stabilize the pitch following the wet and cold weather.

Commenting on the pitch Booth said, “Our priority is to make sure that games go ahead on the pitch. Whilst the pitch may not look too pretty at the moment unfortunately that is a side effect of the recent weather that we will have to live with for the time being.

“We have put 20 tonnes of sand on this week to firm up the pitch but what we really need now are for the temperatures to rise or for some sunny days or ideally both however that is something we are not going to get at this time of year. We have had one sunny day in January and temperatures will not rise until at least the end of February.

“You have to appreciate that from December 21st and up to, and including, Matt Diskin‘s testimonial, the pitch had only seen daylight for one day other than a matchday because it was covered in frost and rain sheets. That made sure that the games went ahead but it is not conducive to a great playing surface. At this time of year, grass is dormant so we are left with trying to make the surface as firm as possible to play rugby on,” added Booth.

So like I said all along, its because its grass, and its winter.

And presumably those who remember emerald bowling greens from winters gone by when rugby was also played ont he same pitch are, erm, a bit senile then ?

no

How would you know ?

i do know that the pitch 40 years ago was green and in excellent nick all through the winter

There you are you see, mad and you don't even realise

i'll be passing your namesake in about an hour ,must remember to have a lag oon the nearest gate post

The interesting line from the article is this:

[i'In order to get the Cravendale Festive Challenge and Matt Diskin’s testimonial game on the pitch was twice cleared of heavy snowfall during the height of the winter freeze. Whilst both games went ahead successfully the damage done is now been dealt with by the groundstaff.'
[/i
So the state of the pitch is Leeds RL's fault and nothing to do with the Union side.

the BARLEY MOW was always a good firm pitch and so was Mc Laren Field .
as is belleview still is now maybe next week we will see a better show from leeds rhinos there.
believe me and many others headingley from 63to 1980 was the best in england leeds united were envious they played on something like lastnights surface

Interesting point.

I read it at face value but you're right.

The groundsman is factual and honest but the marketing spin at the beginning seems to deliberately omit reference to games other than the 2 RL friendlies.