Groundsmen keep on top of surface

Head groundsman Mark Perham is confident Eden Park's turf will be perfect for the World Cup. Photo / Greg Bowker

A crowded rugby season, spring weather and the heavy footsteps of 30 players - the path to an immaculate Rugby World Cup pitch is anything but smooth.

Head groundsmen around the country are fine-tuning their grass for their largest audience yet.

But first they must endure a compact domestic rugby season and test matches.

Eden Park head groundsman Mark Perham says he will have 2 weeks between the last match at the ground and the opening ceremony.

"Leading to the soccer World Cup, those pitches weren't played on for three months. We get about 18 days."

But he says that the rye grass is lovingly groomed by seven staff, seven days a week, and sparing abysmal weather, the pitch will be impeccable for the tournament.

"We just hope it's reasonably dry. We're above average rainfall for this year already, so it would be nice if it flattens out a bit."

New lights have been installed which encourage grass growth in the shaded area of the ground. Machinery is all but banned from driving over the turf. And a 3000sq m spare pitch is being grown in Karaka.

Staff are also placing flooring around the pitch. The tenfold increase in media representatives means camera crews could do as much damage on wet days as a few scrums.

Mr Perham said the biggest pressure on his finely manicured lawn was not from 11 World Cup matches but from the pre-tournament events.

"The opening ceremony will probably put more wear on me than the entire tournament."

But he said he was probably more relaxed than groundsmen at Dunedin's Forsyth Barr Stadium.

The $200 million stadium's grass is being grown under a roof and "knitted" together with nylon.

Once the three types of rye grass were planted, a bulldozer-like machine was used to drive 20 million nylon strands 18cm into the soil, with 2cm "shoelaces" sticking out.

When the grass grew, it twined itself around the strands to make the pitch more resistant to tearing.

Carisbrook Stadium Trust chairman Malcolm Farry said this would allow the turf to be used three times more often.

The biggest obstacle was growing the grass under cover.

Completely covered stadiums such as Cardiff's Millennium Stadium have been praised for their protection from poor weather, but have struggled to create a good pitch.

"It was one of the more controversial elements of the stadium," said Mr Farry. "They didn't believe it could happen. But people now do believe us - we've got this beautiful lush grass, probably the best turf in New Zealand."

Forsyth Barr is designed so that the northern stand is lower than the southern stand, which allowed sunlight to flood on to the ground.

"Tests indicate that we have more light than some stadia in Europe that don't have roofs. We're blessed in this country with sunlight, and also with lack of pollution," said Mr Farry.

"Our worst month is better than six months at Millennium Stadium."