Nobody is keener than Jim Buttar to see flowing, running rugby at Twickenham this autumn.

“A 58-52 scoreline, one scrum and three line-outs all match, and we’ll go home happy!” he tells BBC Sport.

Buttar’s interest is professional though, rather than just the pleasure of the game.

He is England Rugby’s head of grounds and technical operations, in charge of the Allianz Stadium turf.

“When the ball is in hand more and the game is more flowing and open, the wear and tear on the surface is a bit more spread out,” he says.

However the action unfolds, Buttar and his team will be busy.

England play Australia on Sunday, before matches against Japan and New Zealand on 14 and 21 November respectively.

Those will be full-on days, primping and preening the playing surface. The final weekend of November, though, will be something else.

The Nations Championship finals take place at Allianz Stadium from 27 to 29 November, with double-header fixtures involving the top 12 Test teams in the world on three successive days.

“We are likely to be doing 14 or 15-hour days and that is just what it is,” says Buttar.

“That finals weekend is a very condensed number of high-pressure games in a short space of time, but I’m actually looking forward to it, being able to really test yourself and all the planning that you’ve done.”

It will also test a whole new pitch.

Over the summer, the Allianz Stadium surface was relaid.

The turf that Buttar and his team had tended with such care since 2012 was unceremoniously ripped up, with diggers lifting out 9,500 tonnes of earth and grass.



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