Ewood Park
Blackburn, Lancashire, England
Ewood Park, Blackburn, England — opened 1882, 2 rugby league games hosted, home of Blackburn Rovers F.C. (football), 1890-present; no rugby league club was ever tenant.
Sourcing caveat: Both matches are well corroborated by Rugby League Project's own match ledger, matching our recorded games count, date range and top crowd exactly.
Ground facts
| Opened | 1882 (Blackburn Rovers F.C. has played at Ewood Park since 1890 (the ground itself dates to 1882); it has been substantially rebuilt since, including a full 1990s redevelopment, well beyond its state during the 1911 rugby league fixture.) |
| Home club | Blackburn Rovers F.C. (football), 1890-present; no rugby league club was ever tenant |
| Games hosted (rugby league, on record) | 2 |
| Top recorded crowd | 16,654 |
| Capacity | 31,367 today (all-seated, post-1990s redevelopment) |
| Test matches hosted | 1 |
| Surface | grass |
| First rugby league match | 2 October 1911 — Lancashire 12-25 Australia, 1911-12 Kangaroo Tour (attendance 5,000) |
| Years used | 1911–2002 |
| Location | Blackburn, Lancashire |
Name history
- Ewood Park — 1882–present, no other name
Rugby league history
Ewood Park's two rugby league fixtures sit nearly a century apart. The first, in 1911, was a county representative match (Lancashire) against a touring Kangaroo side, in the same pattern as other large football grounds hosting rugby league that era. The second, in 2002, was a full Great Britain Test against New Zealand as part of a strategy of staging occasional internationals at large football stadiums outside rugby league's traditional heartlands to broaden the code's reach; New Zealand won this fixture 30-16.
The long-standing home of Blackburn Rovers F.C. (football), 1890-present.
Historic Test matches, Cup & Grand Finals hosted
- 9 November 2002 — Great Britain 16-30 New Zealand, Baskerville Shield/Test series (16,654, our recorded top crowd)
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.
← Rugby League · Champions list · All-time records · Grand Final results · World Cup · All competitions · Teams · Players