Millennium Stadium - Nematodes

Due to an outbreak of root knot nematodes in the pitch at the Millennium stadium, which affected the quality of the stadium’s turf, the stadium manager Gerry Toms decided to replace the pitch before the first autumn rugby international took place against South Africa. 

Inscapes received a phone call from Lee Evans, the head groundsman at the Millennium stadium on the Friday morning to ask if we could remove the existing turf after the Sunday game between the Cardiff Blues and Gloucester. 

Our staff arrived at the stadium on the Monday morning, with a tractor and korrow plus two tractors and trailers.  We korrowed off the turf to a depth of 35mm and transported all the material out of the stadium, approx 600 tonnes.

We spread 9 tonne of sand on the Tuesday and prepared the surface using a Harley rake and the rootzone was also treated for root knot nematodes.  Hendriks from Holland then started installing the turf using their 2.4m system, whilst our staff were Harley raking in front of them to remove any wheelmarks.

By midday on the Tuesday, half of the pitch was turfed and by 6.00 p.m. on the same day the job was completed.