the france ireland union game was called off with 6 minutes to go to kick off - the stadium in paris for the union game does not have undersoil heating as it is built in a former site where methane gas has been found in the past - a former tip presumably, so not allowed to have the heating under the pitch.

gwyllam lloyd was ranting about the french putting the sprinklers on the pitch during a period of sub zero temps, on humberside tonight, and that the fc staff are seething about the way the pitch was prepared (or lack of). don't think we have heard the last of this one by any means

Weather that apparently affected only one of the two grounds in Perpignan.

And the local council does, so I'm told, posses the equipment required. For some reason it wasn't used.

You get real!
We are talking about a top level professional sports club playing in the top division! Not a local park team.
With away fans & clubs spending thousands to get there.
So yes I do expect them to be able cover a pitch from frost & ice at the very least.

I don't know where St Esteve/XIII Catalan play but it's prefectly conceivable that one field may have been frozen while another might not have been. Tomorrow's Northern Rail Cup match at Hunslet is called off, as far as I know all other RL matches in West Yorkshire are taking place. The fact that Perpignan is in France doesn't mean that the physical process of a pitch freezing is any different, nor does it mean that they should somehow have been better prepared to deal with a week of sub-zero temperatures than clubs in England are. Some of the conspiracy theories on this thread are hilarious. If a pitch is frozen, it's frozen. It's better for the game to be called off than for the players to go out and potentially suffer severe injuries.

How the hell would they know that almost a week before

In 2003 Newcastle United travelled to Barcelona for a champions league group stage game. About 5 hours before kick off there was a down pour of biblical proportions and the game had to be called off, meaning many of the Newcastle fans who had travelled just for the game and were on flights back the following day had a wasted journey.

You know, sometimes, happens. As has already been stated, flights and hotels are a sunk cost. Covering the pitch would not have make a jot of difference.

Might be wrong, but a cursory check on Google suggest it's 2.5 miles away from the Stade Aime Girale.

The whole of Europe was forewarned of this weather 2 weeks ago, the high pressure system over Russia named the 'beast from the east' would bring sub zero temperatures to the whole of Europe.
This weather system is a 'freak' as it has caused havoc to all European tidal systems causing them to fall short of their predicted hieghts by as much as 1.4 metres on every tide for the past 2 weeks.
This has been more than enough time for any sporting clubs administraion to put into place the most basic of ground protection to give the game a chance of being played.
Trent Robinson said on Sky last night that they have been unable to train on the pitch for 1 month.
For the club to use water in whatever way on the pitch in the prevailing weather is absolute stupidity/ignorant. Typical French attitude...............it doesn't matter unless it suits them.

It is adverse weather ..............but it's been adverse for 1 month, they should have had protection on it, simple as.

Just a stab in the dark, but most likely by taking into account the condition of the pitch on Tuesday, the available technology, and the weather forecast. It's not actually rocket science.

Ah great, another know-nowt numptie joins the discussion.

I once refereed a Friday night game at Fartown. I arrived at 6.30pm, an hour before the scheduled kick-off time and immediately put my boots on and the two TJs and I walked every square metre of the pitch. I never used Phil Clarke's "trusty stick a key in the ground" method because I don't know of many boots with key blades for cleats. We and both clubs' coaches decided the match would go ahead: the pitch was flat with no divots and was easily taking a stud. At kick off and throughout the first half, there were no problems at all. Five minutes into the second half I heard the Batley winger running down the touchline, the noise resembled a carthorse on a cobbled street. As soon as he'd been tackled I stopped the game and did another mini-pitch inspection. Frost had started to creep from touch, into the field of play. By the time I'd stopped the game, the ground was solid for two metres in from touch.

I called the game off immediately and although the players and staff were disappointed at not being able to see the match to conclusion, they all understood that it would be too dangerous to continue.

If Catalans had covered the pitch and kept hot air blowers going through the night, there's still no guarantee the game would have gone ahead.

Sh[ii[/it happens, get used to it. Sometimes there really is nobody to blame.

Told by whom?

Only sensible sentence on the thread...

A Catalan fan.

No matter which way you look at this it [iappears[/i that not every effort was made to give the game the best possible chance of going ahead. It also seems telling that a nearby pitch was in good enough condition to stage a game this evening. I'm not suggesting any kind of conspiracy, but incompetence does seem to have played a large part here.

Thanks for the trip down memory lane it was lovely.
That's the point though isn't it, they didn't try & prevent it did they numpty.
If they had tried & failed I suspect there wouldn't be all this debate!

A better chance than pouring water all over it and then leaving it though.


Indeed. And sometimes there is.

Of course these things cannot always be predicted. But if the game at St Esteve took place and [uif[/u the grounds are three miles apart, doesn't that suggest one ground was adequately prepared and one not? Just a question.

probably read it on twitter, the only 100% reliable source of news in the world these days

McRae has his say. Not happy:
[urlhttp://www.sportinglife.com/rugbyleague/news/story_get.cgi?STORY_NAME=rleague/12/02/11/RUGBYL_Catalan_Nightlead.html&BID=480[/url

Awwww, bless.



Am I not on your xmas card list any more?

Got to feel for the fans but the biggest concern is the disruption to the team. Bad enough travelling to France once but n ow we have to do it twice and squeeze in another game

And we're another game behind everyone else in terms of playing time together and gelling. In fact, this'll set us back a bit.

Hmmm. Was the notorious "watering of the pitch" done [iafter[/i Bentham had deemed it playable on Friday afternoon?

That said , We hopefully get Seymour ,O'Carroll back in the running for the London game and a week off while every other team is smashing themselves on frozen pitches.

So, after 15 pages, all we've managed to ascertain is that nobody posting on this thread really knows what really happened or who may or may not be to blame.

Time to wind your necks in, kick back, get a drink and let life go on.

Because as sure as hell, all the could've, would've should'ves aint gonna make a blind bit of difference. But if it makes you feel any better, carry on, you're probably closer to an apoplectic fit than you realise.

Quite possibly...

However, I remember a few years ago Hull and Rovers were playing at home on the same afternoon. It rained, Hull's game at the Boulevard went ahead, Rovers game at NCP was called off.

To be fair, one thing Lloyd did achieve with Hull was improving the playing surface at the Boulevard and in the early days at NCP the pitch wasn't great, although it's much improved now. Point is, same weather in one city, two different outcomes.

I appreciate frost is different and can be managed in different ways. Sometimes, the weather just wins. Really feel sorry for all the Hull fans who travelled for the game and also the Irish fans in Paris (at least there is more to do in Paris).

Hopefully, the re-arranged date doesn't upset our season and today's travelling fans are compensated in some way. I would rather the season st\rted at the start of March and ended at the end of October, but it doesn't and unfortunately we just have to put up with these disappointments when they happen.