Nanobubbles, hungry foxes and hidden reservoir – Twickenham's hi-tech turf

England's men will be playing on a revolutionary new surface when they take on the Wallabies on Sunday. The turf for Allianz Stadium's new surface was grown in the open air, harvested, and transported 200 miles from Scunthorpe to London 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