Twickenham plans £80m roof garden

They think big at the Rugby Football Union these days – so big, in fact, that there seems a serious risk of the Twickenham top brass losing their collective marbles.

It is one thing to dream up an £80m makeover at the south end of the stadium that would establish the old cabbage patch as one of the three or four finest rugby venues in the world. It is quite another to publish a colourful artist's impression of the final product, complete with a scoreboard reading: England 72 France 0. Science fiction, or what?

One way or another, a fair bit of flannel was spoken at Twickers yesterday. The chief architect of the re-development, Terry Ward, said the existing structure incorporated a "robust aesthetic", which sounded more like a psychiatric profile of Martin Johnson.

He also described the design for the new south stand, complete with 200-bed hotel and roof garden, as a "sinuous, asymmetric line of three-storey convex frontage". England's props will find it irresistible, once they learn how to pronounce "asymmetric".

Twickenham has been the subject of almost continuous modernisation since 1989, when the old north stand was demolished. Assuming any local objections are overcome and planning permission is granted without undue delay, construction of this latest project will begin next June and open for business in October 2004.

The stadium will then be a complete bowl, boasting large-scale conference facilities, a 40,000sq ft super-gym and a performing arts centre, which should help the Welsh national team perfect the stand-up routine they have been bringing to London since 1998.

Assumptions are dangerous, however. While Francis Baron, the RFU chief executive, was at pains to emphasise the improving relationship between the union and the councillors of Richmond borough, he knows the hotel plan has its critics. Fourteen houses, 12 of them owned by the RFU, will have to be demolished, and the increased capacity of 82,000 will put further pressure on a road and transport system already under considerable strain. In addition, the union is still paying off the £36m it borrowed to finance previous re-developments.

Nevertheless, Baron was confident of success in a cautious kind of way: confident that the union's revenue projections justified new spending on so grand a scale, and cautious as regards any possible link-up with football.

Would the RFU welcome some shekels from the Football Association in return for hosting an England international or an FA Cup final? "We have never ruled it out, but there again, we haven't had to because it has never been put to us," Baron replied. "Outside of rugby, we are not planning to hold any sporting event at Twickenham. Other sports do not play any part in our projections."

Advice is already being sought on the potential effect of the bowl completion on the Twickenham pitch, which has looked and played more like a water table than a snooker table in recent seasons.

Richard Knight, the stadium director, ruled out any experiment with synthetic surfaces. "Our focus is on grass," he said. "This is a sports industry issue, not simply a rugby issue, and we are consulting with the Sports Turf Research Institute. There is some great technology out there, years ahead of where it used to be."

And if the pitch does go pear-shaped, they can always play on the roof garden.

* Leeds, unbeaten in two Premiership outings this season, have signed the Argentinian Test centre Hernan Senillosa on a short-term contract as cover for the former Springbok Japie Mulder, who is injured.