Not to mention after such a long delay, it was said to be that cold on the day then it wasn't wise to let players come back on the field freezing cold for a meaningless last 10 minutes. Too risky.

I cant recall a serious game of sport being abandoned for a tib and fib injury.

TBH ive played in games where such injury's have occurred at amateur level and not ever seen it.

Really? It's common place especially when the majority of the game has gone (as in this place) so the result can stand.

If it's so common I'm sure i could recall some, but i can't.

I'd say its almost certainly unprecedented, i am more than happy to be proved wrong of course.

I've played in games were we have moved onto a next pitch and carried on? Clearly this wasn't an option here.



As Rich said in those conditions too would probably need a full warm up to go back put for last 15 mins and I dint think the clubs fancied risking their young stars.

I'm not convinced, i have never heard of a game being called for a broken leg ever, even a bad one like this.

They happen fairly often at football, i have seen a few on TV and never has a game been called, i have personally played (albeit RU) in a couple of games where players have been ambulanced off with suspected broken back and neck injuries and the game still played on.

So sadly I'm not buying it, i aren't saying the injury was caused by the pitch/weather combination, not at all but i am saying it IMO played a part in the decision or the psyche of the person/people involved in calling the game off rightly or wrongly.

Under these circumstances the game would have normally continued, i don't know of any other example of a game being called off in this way.

I've watched Pro RL and Amatuer RL since a kid, I've been there at games where they've been abandoned, never a pro (or academy/reserves)



I'd say about 5 in my lifetime, plus a couple more where the games moved to an adjacent pitch



If the medical staff present are not confident in moving the individual they would await an ambulance, dependent on the time between the ref then chooses to abandon. Due to the weather and the prolonged gap I supposed it made sense to abandon the game.



Are you Wakey fans thinking you had a chance to get back in the game?

If you are that concerned then write to your local MP.

I think Leigh East have been playing on an I Pitch for a few years.Maybe they can say what think?

And you never will be, no matter what. You have already made up your mind, and probably did so before a game was played on the ipitch. After the events of last weekend, you are now outraged and hysterical. The more people try to reason with you, the more angry and entrenched your opinions become.



I am still sceptical about the ipitch, but the explanation of the extreme weather conditions being responsible for the grazes caused to some players, makes perfect sense. Despite the everything, the ipitch still out-performed grass, in those conditions, as it remained soft under foot - unlike turf. The grazing injuries caused are not unlike those caused by turf in those conditions but, because turf will be rock hard, the ipitch is the better option for both joint and impact injury.



If there was any chance that the officials at the game, including those from your own club, thought that the ipitch was responsible for the injury to Thomas Coyle, then an official complaint with a full report would have been made by the Wakefield club and RFL match officials. There wasn't a complaint from anywhere about the pitch being, in any way, dangerous.



The reason the game was stopped has already been explained to you. What your experiences of these situations are, are not relevant in any way. You are not important and not in possession of all the facts. Perhaps you should trust the opinion of the officials and doctors from your own club and stop trying to score some petty trolling points at the expense of Thomas Coyle's terrible, season ending, injury.

Pepe you make too many assumptions, all of which are flawed.

I have already extolled the virtues of the pitch at business and community level, I'm just not convinced that it's a suitable surface for RL.

I can guarantee before the game which I attended (if I had made my mind up I probably wouldn't have gone?) I had doubts naturally, as no doubt did you, and every other widnes fan, you'd have to be unbelievably stupid not to.

The pitch and the weather and a combination of both could be argued against ang grass pitch, but the fact that the game has been played on it for over 100 years gives it (grass) credibility.

This surface has no such credibility and as such all aspects of it will be questioned, it happened in football it happened in NFL.

Both the other sports have very different aspects to RL, be that the general dynamics of the game or the kit worn by its competitors, again this is virgin territory for RL.

What calls this pitch into question for me are the reactions on Twitter of players (2 of whom played for you) comments made on sky, and then an air brushing of Saturday by DB when having a dig at Mathers, making out all was fine, when in fact there was contradictory evidence against that claim. No facts but if there was 100% confidence the pitch was blame free why not say "well one game didn't finish and we've a lad with a broken leg" instead of "we've had three games played on this pitch with no problem" I know which I think is the truer reflection of events, even if the pitch was blame free, which in fairness nobody knows.

You've played one competitive game so the jury is still out, your own players took to wearing skins, perhaps because of the weather perhaps not, but as I said to J20 this is only the beginning of the pitch cross examination, and I'd it's a struggle after Wakey god help you when the real moaners come to town.

IMO the real danger of this pitch is that it pre arms the opposition with some ready made arguments and Widnes will become forever a Luton Town known only for a pitch which raised objection.

IMO Widnes need to embrace and investigate all complaints thoroughly for the IPitch's ultimate benefit not go straight on the defensive as DB and people such as yourself are doing, but then again you've already said my opinion counts for nothing, so let's look again at who's made their mind's up before any decision has been reached?

The jury's not only still out, they haven't even sworn on the bible yet, it's going to be a long season, and I fear you have plenty more flack to come.

I have already said that I am sceptical about the suitability of the ipitch for RL. I can even understand players being upset with their grazes and tweeting about it. My main criticism of Richie Mathers was the fact he jumped on the back of some players wishing Thomas Coyle well by trying to tie Tommy’s horrendous injury in with what happened to him the night before. He was trying to make capitol out of it. That was utterly vile, imo. He did delete it, but the damage was done.



You are now coming on here trying to make an issue out of the fact the academy game was abandoned, after the injury to TC. You have been told the reasons, but refuse to accept them. As there isn’t a scrap of evidence to suggest any other reason for the games abandonment, I see no reason to bang on about it. The pitch played no part in the injury or the abandonment of the game. If it had, we would know about it. It was abandoned for perfectly logical reasons that were particular to the incident, time constraints and conditions on the day. Anything within your experience is irrelevant. You are just banging on about it to try to make some point about the safety of the ipitch. You weren’t there and lack the first hand knowledge of the events or the expertise to analyze it. I suggest you take the word of the people and officials who were there. As you seem unable to do this, it is clear that your mind is already made up – a fair assumption by me I’d guess. Certainly, there is more basis in fact than your assumptions on the ipitch.



Whilst I do remain sceptical myself, I think, because the massive benefits that the ipitch brings (and they are considerable and could do absolute wonders for the sport) it is worth giving the ipitch the benefit of the doubt until we have more evidence to the contrary.



At worst, a few bandages on knees and elbows are required. Possibly even just a bit of extra Vaseline is all that may be required. This may only be for a couple of games during the early part of the season. When the weather gets better we may not even need that. There is no major health issue other than grazes, so some of the hysterical criticism from some over emotional people is very miss-placed.



If it doesn’t work out, it will be removed by the club and probably re-located at a local playing field the club has earmarked as a possible training facility for the academy teams.