Rodney Parade is still stuck in the mud and Robin Davey finds himself unable to step free from a gluey topic he says is now a national embarrassment, rather than just a little local difficulty.

 

Something has to be done about what has become Welsh rugby’s greatest embarrassment – the pitch at Rodney Parade, base of one of the nation’s four professional teams.

The start of the new year was heralded by an absolute farce played out in the hour leading up to what was supposed to be a showpiece between Newport Gwent Dragons and the Ospreys and in the apology for a game that followed.

The whole episode has become the dominant rugby subject on social media.

What has made it worse is that the game was shown on national TV, exposing all the issues of a mud and sand strewn pitch with surface water on it and pot-holed in places. A friend of mine living in Chesterfield was watching it and texted me asking just what was going on.

The Ospreys clearly didn’t want to play, head man Steve Tandy fearing the surface was an injury risk while Dragons sources on the pitch at the time tell me some of the pressure applied to referee Ian Davies by certain Ospreys players was unbelievable.

Nevertheless, Davies eventually ruled it fit after several inspections and the game went ahead. But it became a kick-fest, both sides putting boot to ball, unable or unwilling to spread the ball in those conditions.

And there another fiasco unfolded, as the game became more like tennis, the fans jeering and laughing as the ball became airborne, lofted to and fro for minutes on end.

It was an embarrassment – and all played out in front of watching WRU chairman Gareth Davies and chief executive Martyn Phillips, who could hardly have been impressed with the situation unfolding in front of their very eyes.

So what has led to this series of events which has, frankly, made the Dragons a laughing stock, not just in Wales, but in the wider rugby world?

There are several theories doing the rounds, all of which have some credibility. For a start there are now three teams using the pitch – Newport, the Dragons and Newport County, the football club ground-sharing after their previous HQ at Spytty Park on the outskirts of the city was not up to Football League standard.

Both parties signed a ten-year lease in 2012, so that’s not going to change any time soon. Whether it was a sensible thing to do, given that Rodney Parade is a grass pitch, is another matter. Managers have despaired at the state of it once the bad weather kicks in, leading to postponements.

It isn’t possible to install an artificial pitch because the football authorities won’t allow it, meaning the only sure alternative is a Desso pitch, like the one at the Liberty Stadium. But that costs at least £1m and neither the football nor the rugby people in charge at RP are prepared to spend that kind of money.

But there are many who say that three teams playing there is not the real reason for the state of the pitch. Some say, for example, that the decision to build the Bisley Stand, plus terracing at the clubhouse end of the ground, as well as moving the pitch slightly, has affected the drainage.

Attempts have been made by both the rugby and football to sort the drainage out during the summer months, but it hasn’t resulted in any improvement.

There are others who believe the biggest problem is the result of building flats alongside the ground, lots of them, and many five and six stories high, which has seriously affected the drainage. That probably has some mileage for it was never this bad and in days gone by three teams have played at the ground anyway – Newport, Newport United and Newport Extras, as well as it being used for training purposes.

Newport County have brought in experts to conduct an inquiry into the drainage situation, but their results are still awaited.

The whole sorry business has turned into nightmare, for it is also damaging the reputation of the city, people throughout the land probably amazed and even appalled that professional teams have to play on such a surface.

The councils in the region have not exactly been fast in coming forward to help or offer solutions and you can only imagine the outcry if they put up big money, anyway, at a time of cutbacks in areas like social services.

The only real solution is money – lots of it, probably millions, not just to cure the Rodney Parade pitch problems but also to spend on the Dragons squad to bring that up to scratch.