The groundsman of the Docklands Stadium has been grilled by the ARU amid concerns over the pitch ahead of Saturday's Tri-Nations match.

As Wembley Stadium and the Millennium Stadium, the pitch at Melbourne's vast arena has been known to cut up alarmingly easily.

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The issue is a particularly sore point with Australia, who lost two props to long-term injuries two years ago after a scrum collapsed at Wembley because of the pitch.

The AFL, who use the pitch the most, was forced to express its concerns to the venue after being approached by the AFL Players' Association following last Friday's match between St Kilda and Hawthorn.

Docklands management has vowed to take a number of steps to improve the surface, including weekly top dressing and a process known as "hollow coring" of the surface.

Acting CEO of the Australian Rugby Union Players Association (RUPA) Omar Hassanein said that the issue is set to be discussed with the players, as well as with the stadium groundstaff.

"From a players point of view, the last thing we want is a repeat of an incident at Wembley Stadium a year-and-a-half ago when we had two players injured because of a surface that we considered to be unsatisfactory," he said.

"If you have a look at the surface on the weekend it was pretty slippery and we have scrums where there's a lot of weight being transferred through and there's real potential for injuries.

"I'll make contact with Rocky Elsom today to get a bit of feedback at this early stage of the week and see what their thoughts are."

Hassanein added that at this point there was no danger of the match being moved, despite the build-up focussing on the pitch rather than the teams.

"The sport itself has a very strong emphasis on expansion and moving into Melbourne particularly with the Rebels coming into the Super rugby tournament next year," he said.

"It would take quite dramatic circumstances for the ARU to want to move away from their continued development in Melbourne."

27/07/2010