Wembley turf 'not up to scratch'
Thu, 04 Dec 2008 08:12
The turf at Wembley Stadium came in for fresh criticism on Wednesday from Australia captain George Smith after the Wallabies finished their European tour with an 18-11 win over the Barbarians.
But Australia's victory was marred by the sight of props Matt Dunning, who exited on a stretcher with a snapped Achilles tendon, and Sekope Kepu (torn pectoral muscle) both going off early in the second half soon after a Wallaby scrum subsided.
Both packs were not helped by a loose Wembley turf which seemed to give way all too easily under their combined weight.
Indeed at some points parts of the ground looked almost as bad as they did when the 'old' Wembley staged the 1970 FA Cup final just a matter days after the Horse of the Year show.
Huge divots were left all across the pitch on Wednesday and openside flank Smith, leading the Wallabies in place of the injured Stirling Mortlock, said afterwards: "It was obvious that surface was not conducive to scrums. That's why we went to uncontested scrums.
"I think our scrum dominated in that area then!," Smith jokingly added in a reference to the repeated questioning in the British press of the strength of Australia's scrum.
"Both of these are significant injuries. To have it happen in the last outing is not great, but they are resilient characters," said Australia coach Robbie Deans.
In November last year, players from both England and Croatia criticised the state of the Wembley pitch ahead of a match the Croats won to end England's hopes of qualifying for Euro 2008.
Just weeks earlier at Wembley, redeveloped at a cost of some 800 million pounds, an NFL American football match between the New York Giants and the Miami Dolphins saw huge damage done to the pitch.
Since re-opening in 2007, the Wembley turf has been repeatedly criticised as unsuitable for its primary purpose of staging football matches.
It came under
fire as soon as the new ground hosted its first football fixture, the May 2007 FA Cup final between Chelsea and Manchester United, and for England's opening friendly at the new stadium, against Brazil, that June.
AFP
