The south-east appears to be suffering significantly more than the rest of the country with the state of pitches. The Surrey Rugby Reserve League – which is not run by the RFU – is already believed to have postponed the start of its campaign to October.
In football, meanwhile, the local Kent FA has urged clubs to cut down water use where possible, but there are no known leagues who are considering postponements as it stands.
Andrea McMahon, of the Ground Management Association, insisted the sustained period of hot weather is not yet “causing us a problem”. However, she added: “We do need to have a really good eye on this and really have some advice to hand.”
Q&A: The heatwave’s impact on grass-roots sport explained
By Tom Morgan and Ben Rumsby
With temperatures again in the mid 30Cs this week, grass-roots sport – and particularly the football and rugby calendar – is entering what public health experts describe as “uncharted territory”. Here Telegraph Sport attempts to answer some of the key questions:
Why is the heatwave dangerous for grass-roots sport?
While most professional clubs benefit from stadium sprinkler systems, council and amateur clubs’ playing fields are rock hard across England and Wales. Cash-strapped clubs can take measures – such as increasing water breaks – to mitigate the impact of the heat on players, but there is little that can be done about the playing surfaces.
“When you see these terrible fights in town and somebody gets punched and they end up dead, it’s never the punch that kills them, it’s the head on the ground,” said Tom Morris, of Progressive Rugby, a lobby group for player safety. “Obviously, that is a concern if you’re effectively playing on a concrete base.”
Luke Griggs, chief executive of Headway – the brain injury association – adds: “Many concussions are sustained from head-on-head collisions, but the harder the ground, the more likely it is that a concussion will occur in a fall or tackle that results in the head hitting the pitch.
“Without the luxury of sprinkler systems used in elite-level sport, many community pitches across the UK will be as hard as concrete at present.”
Which sports are most affected?
Rugby – and to a lesser extent football – appear to be facing major disruption in the coming weeks, particularly in the south-east. Some competitions meet with the Rugby Football Union on Monday to discuss their options.
“Many clubs are keen to play so if delays happen, they may be match by match,” a source close to talks said. “Any delay would have to go through governance approval which would take a few days. The thing to stress is the regional variation… therefore a blanket delay isn’t the right approach.”
A Football Association source added that “we are monitoring the situation closely”. However, Kenny Saunders, of the ‘Save Grass Roots’ football campaign, expressed concern around low-level players being less able to deal with the heat than professionals.
“With the pitches being rock hard, if they fall over and they jump to head a ball and they land awkwardly, they’re going to potentially break or dislocate something,” he said. “The ones playing on artificial pitches, they’re playing in twice the heat. Once the sun beams down on the bits of rubber, it’s immense heat on there.”
What solutions are being proposed?
Clubs are also encouraged to consider the use of crash mats in some circumstances to ensure players are getting adequate full contact preparation.
Teams are also developing strategies to deal with heat exhaustion. Many teams are reducing physically-intense training sessions to 15 minute stints, with increased water breaks. However, there is some pragmatism in sport, that there is little that can be done about the state of the pitches.
“Grassroots football is not like the Premier League, where it’s watered two, three or four times a day,” said Saunders. “We have to put up with what we’ve got. Councils just haven’t got the money to maintain grassroots football pitches.”
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