With Cardiff Blues taking on Sale Sharks this Friday the squad took their first run out on the new pitch
The artificial carpet has been installed by FieldTurf, who are one of the most established and well-known brands in the artificial turf industry.
They have already developed a wide range of systems for artificial pitches and recently installed a number of new surfaces at Munster's training centre at the University of Limerick.
Selected as one of the IRB's preferred producers, the surface is designed to meet the most stringent requirements both of rugby and of the current International Rugby Board regulations. The pitches have also been used by Manchester City, Arsenal, FC Barcelona, Real Madrid CF, Juventus Turin, Inter Milan and Ajax football clubs.
Speaking of the new surface Cardiff Blues Director of Rugby Phil Davies said,
“Everyone is very excited about playing on the new surface for the first time.
“We have trained on it now and have a feel for the surface.
“Obviously it was hard to play an open expansive game sometimes last season due to the weather and conditions.
“Despite the best efforts of our ground staff the rainfall we had didn’t do the pitch any favours and it was heavy underfoot. Now with the artificial surface we can hopefully play more of a fast free flowing game.”
Cardiff Blues CEO Richard Holland added,
“I would like to thank all our Operations staff who have worked tirelessly to make sure the pitch was ready in time for the opening match of the season.
“This is a very exciting period for Cardiff Blues and the pitch will hopefully allow us play an entertaining rand of rugby that people will want to come to watch.
“We will be opening up the pitch to the wider community within the Blues region also and I’m sure it will prove popular with them.”
The Cardiff Arms Park pitch is available to hire by calling 029 20 302000 or emailing [email protected]
Quick Facts:
• 335 lorry journeys made to take soil out of Arms Park
• 6,000 tons of topsoil and turf removed from Arms Park
• The new pitch is made of over 50% recycled material
• 150 tons of rubber crumb used on the new playing surface
• 300 tons of sand used on the new playing surface
• 6,000 tons of stone used as base for new playing surface
• 543,615km of yarn used on the surface of the new artificial pitch so enough to go round the earth 13 and a half times
• 811,366,400 filaments x 0.67m gives a total length of 543,615,488m or