Ellis Park
Johannesburg, Johannesburg, South Africa
Ellis Park, Johannesburg, South Africa — opened 1928, 1 rugby league games hosted, home of primarily a rugby union venue (Golden Lions/Lions franchise) and historically also used for football; no rugby league club was ever tenant — a single one-off international Test.
Sourcing caveat: General accounts of this 1962 South African leg of the tour consistently place the third Test in Johannesburg, and Rugby League Project's own tour results ledger names the venue as Ellis Park specifically; no independent, Ellis-Park-specific source (e.g. a dedicated venue history) was found describing this fixture, so the venue identification rests on Rugby League Project's tour ledger rather than multiple independent sources.
Ground facts
| Opened | 1928 (Rebuilt several times since 1928, including a major reconstruction completed in 1982-89 (as the FNB Stadium era began at a separate Johannesburg site) — well beyond its state during the 1962 rugby league Test described here.) |
| Home club | primarily a rugby union venue (Golden Lions/Lions franchise) and historically also used for football; no rugby league club was ever tenant — a single one-off international Test |
| Games hosted (rugby league, on record) | 1 |
| Top recorded crowd | 10,000 |
| Capacity | approximately 62,567 today (post-reconstruction); a period-specific 1962 capacity figure was not found |
| Test matches hosted | 1 |
| First rugby league match | 31 August 1962 — South Africa 23-45 Great Britain, 1962 Great Britain Lions tour (attendance 10,000, our recorded top and only crowd) |
| Years used | 1962 |
| Location | Johannesburg, Johannesburg |
Name history
- Ellis Park — 1928–2018 popular name
- Emirates Airline Park — since 2018, a naming-rights sponsorship, primarily used for the ground's rugby union identity
Rugby league history
This was South Africa's third and final Test of a short rugby league international tour by the 1962 Great Britain Lions, who also played South Africa at Berea Park in Pretoria and at Kingsmead in Durban in the same week; Great Britain won all three South African fixtures. Rugby league had only a brief, largely forgotten international foothold in South Africa in this period, overshadowed entirely by the country's dominant rugby union and, at Ellis Park specifically, by the ground's far more famous identity as a rugby union and football venue (South Africa's 1995 Rugby World Cup final and 2010 FIFA World Cup semi-final were both staged here).
Primarily South Africa's most famous rugby union venue (host of the 1995 Rugby World Cup final) and a 2010 FIFA World Cup semi-final venue; home of the Lions (rugby union) franchise.
Historic Test matches, Cup & Grand Finals hosted
- 31 August 1962 — South Africa 23-45 Great Britain (10,000)
Pre-dates the site's structured match-by-match records for these competitions, so listed here as sourced facts rather than linked match pages.
Sources
Data last verified: 11 August 2026.
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