Broke his collar bone last night whilst breaking our advertising boards



Not the best decision he'll ever make in a match with the ground so wet

That was right in front of us. Looked like a dislocation at first as looked like they was trying to put it back in. He was in bad pain and could hear him shouting with the pain.

Was you one of the people taking his picture?

I do think the RFL in conjunction with clubs will need to look at improving the safety of perimeter advertising.

Its fair to say that players should not be suffering such serious injuries through collisions with off pitch materials in modern stadia.

Langtree Park as a stadium from a players perspective offers far greater off pitch run off areas than probably any other league ground in the UK. Yet the player still suffered a very serious injury.

Its not like changes cant be done. Compare for example the amount of cladding round the rugby posts nowadays to those from just prior to SL.

Its purely down to a willingness to spend a little bit more money.


With regard to the player, I do wonder as well if they Australian players are not used to playing in such wet conditions on a pitch specifically designed to deal with lots of rainfall.
Let me explain. Australian and French pitches are designed for dryer conditions and therefore don't have the built in drainage of a stadium pitch such as at Langtree park. Consequently when it does rain on those pitches, not only does the pitch get muddy but also develops pools of surface water. These two things would act as breaks to slow a sliding player down. The high tech pitch at Saints on the other hand is very good at getting rid of excess water, and its construction also avoids mud. For example look how clean both sets of players jerseys were at the end of the match.
Consequently the water that does remain acts solely to reduce surface friction and allows players to travel significant distances while diving on the ground.

These pitches should be banned. There is far more chance of injury than tackling a players standing leg from behind.

100% not!

Let hope for Eamon's sake it wasn't a Hattons Solicitors sign.

Go hard or go home. Should put spikes, razor blades and anti vandal paint on the hoardings.

I feel really sorry for Luke Lewis.I have felt there would always be an accident like that to happen.Which brings to mind of one match at Langtree Park i have it recorded where as the player [off hand i have not got the disc to handbut the player did the same thing as Luke but fortunately there was a camera man sat behind the hoarding & he opened up the hoarding as the player slid thro.The camera man seemed very pleased with himself,so there must be gates every so far but not for Luke. Anyhow i hate the digital adverts flicking before your eyes.What must it be like for the players tho they seem to cope with them.Hope Luke makes a full recovery.

+1

Aussies seem satisfied with the distance between the in goal and advertising boards.

It was just one of those things. If it's a problem at Langtree Park, it's a problem at every ground. There comes a point where there's only so much room you can give them.

Unfortunately Gary Wheeler didn't make it to kick off. The weight of the new Super League helmet caused him to suffer multiple injuries.