Peter Winterbottom, the former England world-class flanker and now a writer on rugby, has made the point that Paris and Cardiff have “perennial problems of turf delamination” that have “blighted” the fixtures played there. He might have added Murrayfield to this blighted list. “It is a matter of time,” he argued, “before a player gets seriously injured on these pitches, and the authorities need to act to find a solution.”

The worst offender in all of this is the Welsh Rugby Union and its management of the Millennium Stadium. Here is a stadium purpose-built for rugby, with a roof, which invariably presents muddy fields. On several occasions when the Wallabies have played Wales, the WRU has insisted on keeping the roof open even though the rain has been pouring down. For reasons that defy rugby logic, the WRU has resisted doing what the authorities at Twickenham have done, and use a system that weaves nylon strands into the surface to create a splendid rugby field. This nylon weave system is also used at the purpose-built, roofed rugby stadium at Dunedin. The field there is almost as fast as Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane, which has the best playing surface in world rugby.

This current series of matches in Europe between the southern hemisphere and northern hemisphere powers, now in its third week, is a sort of dry (or wet, in some cases) run for contests that could take place during the 2015 Rugby World Cup tournament in England (and at the Millennium Stadium). England is trying to put a marker down this weekend by following its victory over the Wallabies with a win, for the second year in a row, over the All Blacks. A victory for England will help entrench their “Fortress Twickenham” ambitions. The Springboks play Scotland and then France, teams they could encounter in RWC 2015. Older players have been brought back into the Springboks Test team to cope with the heavier, slower conditions of the fields expected during the 2015 RWC tournament.

Will this strategy of going back to the future pay off in 2015? I doubt it.

The Wallabies, who are building a new, younger team, play Wales in their last match of this tour at the mud-heap of the Millennium Stadium. That is two weeks away. Their most pressing issue right now is to maintain their seven-try form shown against Italy in their Test on Sunday against Ireland.