Picture from of the Windhoek Gim facebook page.
Windhoek Gymnasium Private School in Namibia is the first high school in Africa to lay an artificial rugby pitch
(De Hoop Primary School in Somerset West already has two fields). It’s believed to have cost some serious Moola, with an estimate of R12 million being suggested. However that market price is set to plummet as the demand and sales pick up over time and it may become a viable option in the not too distant future.
Without upsetting too many Western Cape school rugby enthusiasts who have developed an appreciation or maybe even a love for their rugby in adverse conditions on muddy/mushy winter surfaces, I was wondering if a change to artificial turfs should be a consideration by some of the schools that make up the Western Province Premier League.
Having suffered through a few dull and dreary English Premiership matches over the years during our Southern Hemisphere silly season, I welcomed the Saracens artificial pitch when it arrived back in 2013. I truly believed at that stage that the improved underfoot and ball-handling conditions that it enabled would benefit English (and other European) rugby tremendously once other clubs followed suit. As it turned out all English rugby really needed to get them back on the right path was a former Physical Education and Geography teacher and principle named Edmund Jones, but that’s besides the point I’m trying to make here. 
De Hoop Primary School pitches courtesy of their Facebook page
My son played on De Hoops field last year. One thing that struck me is how far a rugby ball rolls on that service. Average kickers were kicking the ball miles. The rugby ball just seems to bounch much more on that service. When we played them in cricket I was expecting the balls to race to the boundries but it actually pulled up fery quickly. The “grass” is very thick and a round cricket ball pulls up quickly but a bounching rugby ball just keeps going.
Personally I like the odd mud wrestling game, if you can handle the ball in that you know you can play rugby.
@beet: Die Groot Gelykmaker. Los die plastic pitches vir die ander provinsies.
@Rugger fan: yeah any Durbanites who find themselves at Crusaders in Durban North can check out their outdoor indoor soccer fields. They use the stuff. It quite awesome.
My son played a few games on artificial turf in Abu Dhabi / Dubai – turf is a lot longer than astro – looks and feels very real – and not many “carpet burns” either.
Was surprised. Jogging on it feels pretty normal too.
So the Windhoek Gim field costs in the region of R12 million.
I’ve been reliably informed that a good hockey astro plus floodlights will set a school back by ±R8 million