Re: Catalans Game to be rescheduled : Sat Feb 11, 2012 8:53 pm  

Pookie wrote:

Yes lets cancel the magic weekend, challenge cup and four nations. Because after all one game was cancelled.
And while we are at change the football season to have a break between January and March because after all Portsmouth cancelled a game last week.
Talk about over reactions.

Read my post again, i said the magic weekend only

Nothing else.....

By removing a week and moving the start date, we could prob start end feb and finish late Oct (it'll rain no matter when at GF)

Re: Catalans Game to be rescheduled : Sat Feb 11, 2012 8:59 pm  

Headhunter you're half right, my mistake.

St Esteve Calatalns XIII beat Montpelier 60-26.

Perhaps the 'stadium' where the game was played doesn't hold 9000+ but what does that have to do with it except that the bigger the anticipated crowd and the further the away supporters have travelled, the more effort should be made to ensure the match is played.

Hull's match was called not off for reasons of 'crowd safety' but as a result of a basic failure to protect the playing surface.

Of course it if turns out that the Catalan's Stadium has a micro climate which prohibits such measures which were taken at sports grounds in the 50s and 60s I will stand corrected.

[Kosh]

Re: Catalans Game to be rescheduled : Sat Feb 11, 2012 9:03 pm  

Staffs FC wrote:

Very much so. In the absence of under soil heating it's unlikely the pitch would have been playable anyway. Clearly a decision is required much earlier for Catalan games in the future.

Saints managed it. Although it seems that might have come at some cost.

Rumour has it that it was apparent as early as Tuesday that the pitch would likely be unplayable. In fairness that would have been of limited benefit to travelling fans as airlines wouldn't have handed out refunds anyway, and budget tickets are difficult/expensive to change.

Re: Catalans Game to be rescheduled : Sat Feb 11, 2012 9:04 pm  

"Hull FC fans can hear very strong views of Shaun McRae in @HumbersideSport bulletins on Sunday and Mon morning on the Catalans postponement"

Re: Catalans Game to be rescheduled : Sat Feb 11, 2012 9:08 pm  

Kosh wrote:

Saints managed it. Although it seems that might have come at some cost.

Rumour has it that it was apparent as early as Tuesday that the pitch would likely be unplayable. In fairness that would have been of limited benefit to travelling fans as airlines wouldn't have handed out refunds anyway, and budget tickets are difficult/expensive to change.

I agree it's shocking for those who travelled down there. If they've cocked the pitch up it's even worse. It will mean fewer fans booking Catalan game trips at this time of the year.

Re: Catalans Game to be rescheduled : Sat Feb 11, 2012 9:09 pm  

Mrs Barista wrote:

"Hull FC
fans can hear very strong views of Shaun McRae in @HumbersideSport bulletins on Sunday and Mon morning on the Catalans pgostponement"

would be greatful if someone could post what he says as we wont be back till late monday night

Re: Catalans Game to be rescheduled : Sat Feb 11, 2012 9:10 pm  

Although I have sympathies for the fans and our players & officials. Some of you really do need a reality check.

Bearing in mind the usual ambient temperatures in Perpignan, it's doubtfull that the local authority (who actually own and run the stadium) have even considered investing in ground covers, heating etc, let alone the considerable investment required for undersoil heating. But just like a couple of years ago in England, when we were hit with the worst winter we'd seen for 20 years, everyone expects the local councils to have all the required equipment to cope with any contingency, stuck in a magical shed somewhere.

Yes there are questions to be asked about the pitch preparation and also the timing of the fitness to play decision. But at the end of the day it was the weather that caused the game to be called off. Adverse weather that happens very rarely and certainly doesn't justify massive public expense, just so a rugby match can go ahead.

Get fooking real

Re: Catalans Game to be rescheduled : Sat Feb 11, 2012 9:11 pm  

Both rugby pitches in Perpignan are really close together. The fact that one was playable and one was not, seems to point towards circumstances other than the weather.

Re: Catalans Game to be rescheduled : Sat Feb 11, 2012 9:12 pm  

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

[Kosh]

Re: Catalans Game to be rescheduled : Sat Feb 11, 2012 9:19 pm  

cod'ead wrote:

Although I have sympathies for the fans and our players & officials. Some of you really do need a reality check.

Bearing in mind the usual ambient temperatures in Perpignan, it's doubtfull that the local authority (who actually own and run the stadium) have even considered investing in ground covers, heating etc, let alone the considerable investment required for undersoil heating. But just like a couple of years ago in England, when we were hit with the worst winter we'd seen for 20 years, everyone expects the local councils to have all the required equipment to cope with any contingency, stuck in a magical shed somewhere.

Yes there are questions to be asked about the pitch preparation and also the timing of the fitness to play decision. But at the end of the day it was the weather that caused the game to be called off. Adverse weather that happens very rarely and certainly doesn't justify massive public expense, just so a rugby match can go ahead.

Get fooking real

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.