As part of a new partnership between England Rugby and STIGA we have taken delivery of three robot mowers to help with the considerable task of cutting grass over 3 hectares(8 acres) of grass around the club. As well as delivering practical help to the club, STIGA are also offering 15% discount on all their groundscare equipment, from robots to ride on mowers, strimmers to secateurs, available by using the QR code at the ground on the pitchside board, posters in the clubhouse and on the beermats, and the discount code STIGARUGBY-2014 at checkout. Additionally the club will be benefit from any purchases, by receiving 5% cashback from the purchase price from STIGA.

We recently ran a competition to name the robots, through our Facebook page, with club members asked to think of appropriate names for them.

We had already named the smallest one ITSY - short for Itsy bitsy teeny weeny greeny grass cutting machiney, and we asked members to name the other two bigger machines.

We are pleased to announce the winners are Luke from the under 11 age group team, and Hannah Wilkinson from our Cougars team.
Luke named one of them Duhan Van Der Mower. Luke is an Edinburgh and Scotland rugby fan, so clearly was influenced in the name he chose.
Hannah, though a Welsh rugby fan, chose Mow Marler as the name for the other one. We'll see if we can find a suitable haircut for Mow.

Both winners received prizes from Gilbert Rugby, presented by our Groundsman Bill Glendinning.

The robots are currently beavering away, with ITSY tasked to mow the grass behind the Squash Club, and Duhan and Mow have already cut the Second team pitch and are currently working away on the First team pitch for the moment. Once the grass really gets going they'll both be assigned to cut a single pitch, most likely the second team pitch, throughout the main grass growing season.

They are designed to cut little and often, which is the optimal regime for grass health, and will cut a pitch up to three times a week during the season. Mowing times are scheduled around training and game times, and they will cut early morning, during the day and late evening to avoid bumping into anyone.

We ask players if they do train at the weekends or during the week outside of normal training times to use the third team pitch, since this is being mowed by the grounds team, and is robot free. Similarly if Coaches want to use the second team pitch outside of their normal training times, please let Bill know, so that he can switch the robots off.

Please don't lift or move the mowers because the blades underneath are continuously turning very fast and are razor sharp. They are also geotagged to the Rugby club location, so if you fancied borrowing one to cut your back garden, then I'm afraid they won't work outside of our clubs' location. Additionally they have GPS trackers on them, so we know where they are at any moment in time, and have an app which controls and tracks them.

The robots are here on trial for three years, with all maintenance and consumables paid for by STIGA, and at the end of that time, we can purchase them for a small nominal fee. During the trial period we will be conducting pitch analysis and comparisons between robot mowed, and normal mowed pitches to see what effect they have on pitch standards and grass health.

Whatever the effect on grass health, they will certainly save a considerable amount of grounds team time during the main growing season. There are areas where the robots can't cut because of the terrain, and these will be cut normally by the grounds team including the remaining two pitches, so you'll still see us around the grounds on the red Toro cylinder mower.

If you've any questions on how they work, then feel free to ask Bill whenever you see him.