Australia v England: Surface tensions are erased at Test venue

The AAMI Park surface ahead of tomorrow’s second Test against England has been given the “all clear.’’

The Hurricanes scrum rips up the turf at AAMI Park in April. Picture: Colleen Petch.

The relief from the Australian Rugby Union was almost palpable as the Wallabies delivered an “all clear” on the AAMI Park surface ahead of tomorrow’s second Test against England, but now the talking point is whether major rectangular grounds should install hybrid pitches.

For months now the ARU and the stadium have been in a desperate race to ensure the playing surface did not fold like cheap carpet beneath the scrums, as it had done in the six Super Rugby matches played there this season. Prodding reminders from Eng-land coach Eddie Jones that he was “confident” ARU boss Bill Pulver would fix the problem did nothing to assuage fears at St Leonards.

But yesterday came reports from ARU headquarters that the Wallabies had inspected the pitch and reported that it felt extremely stable underfoot. Granted, no scrums were set but the feeling was that it would not give way under the set pieces.

It would be bad enough if the ground was churned up but it would be unthinkable if any side, but particularly England, suffered any injuries caused by an uneven surface, as happened when the Wallabies played the Barbarians at Wembley in December 2008.

Despite warnings before the match from prop Matt Dunning that he was extremely concerned about the surface, the game went ahead. At the first scrum, the grass buckled and the scrum sheared out of control, snapping Dunning’s Achilles tendon and tearing fellow prop Sekope Kepu’s pectoral muscle.

Both were out for the entire following season and Dunning never played Test football again. Kepu, however, made a full recovery and will pack down at tighthead for the Wallabies tomorrow night.

But an ARU spokesman said yesterday that the angst over the playing surface provided a good reason why Australia’s major rectangular stadiums — AAMI Park, Allianz Stadium and Suncorp Stadium — should look at installing hybrid pitches similar to the one at Twickenham.

Twickenham installed the hi-tech pitch as part of a makeover for last year’s World Cup and though 10 matches were played at the ground during the tournament, there were scarcely any signs of wear and the ground looked a picture on the day of the All Blacks-Wallabies Cup final.

“A hybrid pitch is comprised of 90 per cent real turf, 10 per cent artificial but it’s the artificial turf that binds it together,” an ARU spokesman said yesterday. “The cost is not cheap, about $1.5 million, but given the volume of traffic at these stadiums it’s certainly becoming a realistic option.”

Even though AAMI Park will be one of the smallest venues that the Wallabies have played at in years, it promises to be a dramatic setting as Australia attempts to come back from 1-0 down in the series.

“For years, I’ve been involved with the Wallabies and I’ve never played there and it’s going to be a zoo,” said Australian vice-captain Michael Hooper.

Although Australia’s coach Michael Cheika insists his side will not be mimicking England’s niggling tactics from the first Test in Brisbane, he acknowledged that they had plans in place to combat it.

The most effective way would be to take the English gloating out of the equation — the handclapping right in the Australians’ faces any time they made a mistake was especially unbecoming — but they also will be relying on referee Craig Joubert and his assistant referees to monitor that no players are being taken out behind the play.

The two Wallabies who handle the ball more than any others, halves Nick Phipps and Bernard Foley, seemed to be especially targeted at Suncorp. So speedy and reliable is Phipps in getting from breakdown to breakdown that any time the ball is lying at the back of a ruck with him nowhere to be seen is usually grounds for suspicion.

Israel Folau, whom Eddie Jones claimed single-handedly kept Australia in the contest for long periods in Brisbane, admitted there was a fire burning in the Wallabies after that defeat.

“Yeah, there is,” he said. “We’re just in a hole at the moment. We want to obviously square up the series and there is no other option, I guess. So we’ve got to come out and give it our all after last weekend — the guys will be obviously ready to go. There’s no motivation needed.”