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Referee's fears for Etihad safety
- Wayne Smith
- From: The Australian
- July 28, 2010 12:00AM
AUSTRALIAN Rugby Union officials are adamant Saturday's Bledisloe Cup Test will go ahead at Etihad Stadium.
The stand comes despite growing concerns about the state of the playing surface but the final call will rest with South African referee Craig Joubert.
International Rugby Board referees manager, Paddy O'Brien, said yesterday Joubert had contacted him in some alarm after being greeted on his arrival in Australia by newspaper stories outlining the concerns of the AFL Players Association and the Rugby Union Players Association about the safety of footballers on the slippery, shifting surface at Melbourne's indoor stadium.
"He was just going on what he read and obviously he's got scrums and everything else and just wanted to make sure what the concerns were," said O'Brien, who confirmed that Joubert would be making his own assessment of how safe the ground is.
"At the end of the day, a referee's obligation is to check the playing surface. So it is his responsibility to make sure it is safe and that's what he's doing."
Asked whether Joubert would order the match to be played with uncontested scrums if he deemed that the surface could not cope with two 900kg packs crashing into each other, O'Brien said that was not the solution. "Oh no, if a ground is not safe before a match you can't start the match. That's why it's good he's doing it (his inspection) now," he said.
An ARU spokesman said player welfare was at the forefront of its considerations. "We'll work with Etihad to make sure any concerns are alleviated," the spokesman said.
It is understood that rugby authorities do not believe the main problem is of the surface shifting, as happened at Wembley Stadium on the Wallabies' 2008 spring tour when Matt Dunning and fellow prop Sekope Kepu both sustained season-ending injuries when the ground buckled beneath a scrum, but rather that it is slippery.
Even Victoria Premier John Brumby bought into the crisis yesterday, although his concern was primarily with the alarm raised by the AFLPA.
"I am concerned about the turf there," Brumby said. "It needs to be resolved and it needs to be resolved in way where the players have 100 per cent confidence."
AFL boss Andrew Demetriou has raised with Etihad Stadium officials the issue of pre-season concerts being staged at the venue, with all indications being that the current problem with the instability of the surface can be traced back to AC/DC concerts staged there earlier this year.
Demetriou did not rule out the possibility of switching AFL fixtures to alternate venues if the ground was considered too dangerous.
"We've moved games before when we've found the surface to be unsafe," Demetriou said. "There is no suggestion that this surface is unsafe."
In fact, there is such a suggestion and it comes from no less an identity than former Victoria premier Jeff Kennett, now the Hawthorn president, who is alarmed that players are being injured -- and administrators exposed to the threat of legal action -- because of the state of the Etihad playing surface.
"My responsibility as president is to the welfare of my employees be they players or administrators," Kennett told The Australian. "I was not convinced we were given a consistent surface of quality to play on. That has led to a lot of injuries there this year. There were none last weekend that I'm aware of, thankfully, but we don't need injuries to prove our point."
Kennett was unsure how the Etihad pitch would cope with rugby union scrums, particularly the heavyweight collisions of the Wallabies and All Blacks packs. "All I can suggest is that all those associated with the code and with the game do their own due diligence and they will have to make their own decision," he said.
Neither Wallabies coach Robbie Deans nor his All Blacks counterpart Graham Henry was entertaining any thoughts other than a showdown at the stadium on Saturday night.
"I have no concern about it. It's a level playing field for both sides," Deans said testily yesterday. "We'd play on asphalt if we have to. It doesn't matter.
"There's a Bledisloe Test match in Melbourne this weekend and that's fantastic."
Henry also attempted to hose down concerns yesterday, saying: "We're playing there at 8 o'clock on Saturday night and we just get on with it."
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news...-1225897732016
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