An example of synthetic turf pitch adopted by rugby

The Canterbury Academy, in England, is a nationally recognised sports college which provides normal academic studies with thorough practice and development in certain sports to its athletes. The academy works in partnership with a variety of clubs, national governing bodies of sport and other sporting organisations. It consequently provides access to a £4.5 million sports complex, including a top level synthetic turf pitch dedicated to rugby.

This surface was recently installed and used by the Canterbury Academy. The Rugby MXSi TLT 60 surface proved its resilience and durability in the face of a sport characterized by hotly-contested scrums, rucks and mauls where natural grass suffers a lot from the resulting stamping of the packs. Indeed, the surface is manufactured using one of the strongest yarns on the market, from the latest in yarn technology. As well as offering softness, the shape of the two combined monofilament yarns provides the required durability and resistance for rugby.

The two monofilament yarns are also designed to provide long-term consistent playing characteristics for rugby that natural grass could not offer on a day-to-day basis. As a result, drop kickers enjoy the even surface where the predictability of bounce is enhanced. Moreover, independent testing has shown that even after 200,000 Lisport cycles – the equivalent of 8 years average usage – it still plays to the latest IRB22 (International Rugby Board) but also FIFA standards.

The Canterbury based academy enjoys the quality of this synthetic turf pitch for training and matches, as Darren Watson, director of sport, said: “the build is a thing of beauty and everyone who visits us is blown away by the quality of the turf. […]The quality of play the pitch enables is unbelievable, it is a very exciting place to be and it is already driving sport at the school and in this district. What we really need is another one!”