The Appliance of Science on the Hallowed Turf
Twickenham Stadium’s new head groundsman, Jim Buttar, is out on the pitch by 6:30am on a Test match day.
This has been his first Six Nations and he’s loved it because, he says, it’s his “dream job”.
You might imagine that the groundsman’s art simply requires a mower, a line marker and a fork for the inevitable divots. Not so. Caring for turf is a science these days. Jim has nine weather forecasting apps on his phone and that’s just the start.
Being head groundsman at Spurs’ White Hart Lane for 11 years means he knows his grass, but surely it’s pretty much the same for both sports?
'Rotational pressure and traction meters'
No, the Twickenham turf will be longer, the last cut before the match leaving it 26mm tall and how it performs is down to Jim.
Football managers often want to choose the length of their grass, how much water is on it so how the ball travels across it. Rugby coaches, however, concentrate on the coaching.
So when it comes to the firmness of the pitch, the traction players will have, affected by the strength and thickness of the blades of grass, that’s Jim’s responsibility.
This rotational pressure is measured by a traction meter which simulates the sideways movement of a player’s feet.
“When a player turns, their knee shouldn’t be going in the opposite direction to their ankle,” says Jim. “If the numbers on the traction meters are too high, we can remove some of the grass and create a bit more space around the leaf.”
But he’s still not satisfied. “Decent turf traction makes sure that the turf won’t give way when a player changes direction and the meter is really a torque wrench, with a footplate and studs. The one we currently have isn’t designed for rugby forwards though, it’s designed for half the weight of a player of 80kg, hardly half the weight of a Kyle Sinckler or Joe Marler. So I’m trying to get a more rugby-specific one made.”
'From the Champions League final to the Africa Nations Cup in Egypt'
In more than 20 years looking after pitches, since starting as an apprentice at Kimbolton School in Cambridgeshire, Jim says the industry has changed hugely.
“Whereas we used to call on specialists for expert advice, now we take qualifications and rely on our own expertise. Also the relationship with suppliers has changed. They used to sell us products which we struggled to make fit our needs and now we control and dictate what they produce. It’s more of a partnership, with ground staff helping companies understand what we require.”
Like the referee Jim is at the centre of a team of three, assisted by full-time groundstaff Ian Ayling and Andy Muir, and on match days four more are employed.
On Test match mornings says Jim: “Five or six of us will be out on the pitch pushing our Matador mowers for about two hours. Most of the work has been done by then and we can be confident of the surface.”
Having spent almost a year and a half as a consultant for ProPitch who manage playing surfaces worldwide, working on everything from the Champions League Final to the Africa Nations Cup in Egypt, Jim was often parachuted in at the last minute and was out of the country most of the time.
'Electric atmosphere'
That left little quality family time with wife Emma, who is Thames Valley Police deputy control room manager, and their three children Jack, aged 11, Evie (9) and six-year-old Lily.
“It was tough on the family,” says Jim who even now puts in a 60-hour week, including his travel from Northamptonshire, and viewing on his phone the lighting rigs at night thanks to a camera positioned in the East Stand.
“I’ve always been willing to commute rather than uprooting the family,” he says. “But I love to do story time and bedtime and be involved in all their sports clubs.”
So how does rugby as a sport compare with his experience of football?
“Well, it’s more relaxed, less tribal,” says Jim. “The atmosphere is still electric and when I hear eighty odd thousand singing the anthems or Swing Low Sweet Chariot it makes the hairs stand up, makes me feel really patriotic!”
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