On eyesight, the condition of the pitch in does not look very good and therefore some facts concerning the pitch of Toyota Stadium for your

information:

The pitch at Toyota Stadium consists of three types of grass namely Kikuyu, annual and perennial ryegrass.

In the last part of 2016, the Free State were hit by a severe drought and experienced temperatures in December of 40 °C and even more. Because Toyota Stadium is situated in a low-lying area, a temperature is 2-3°C colder than the rest of the suburbs in Bloemfontein. This severe climate and drought cause the rye grass, which is a winter grass and needs a lot of water, to die. The Kikuyu, normally a summer grass, and supposed to grow over the ryegrass millimetres when it dies, also did not perform as expected. In early January

2017 these dead patches were reseeded for the season.

Then, thankfully, we receive higher than normal rainfalls and thunderstorms.

On one occasion we received more millimetres if rain in half an hour.

This again caused the seeds to drown and we did not get any growth.

As we were in the process of our annual reseeding the pitch (during end of match when the team tour) we did not reseed the field again. This leaves certain patches on the pitch in areas were the kikuyu did not grow as well.

Currently we are in our process to reseed the pitch and the pitch is:

• short but still within playing standards
• not to hard
• and still a pitch for good running rugby