King George's Field
Tonypandy, Rhondda Cynon Taff, Wales
King George's Field, Tonypandy, Wales — opened not applicable — see below, 1 rugby league games hosted, home of see the main write-up under Pen-y-graig/Mid Rhondda Athletic Ground.
Sourcing caveat: We could not independently reach Rugby League Project's own venue page for this entry to confirm the match details directly (it returned a 404 on our own attempt, despite reportedly resolving in earlier research); the match details here rest on Wikipedia's tour article. See the main Pen-y-graig entry for the fuller history of this ground.
Ground facts
| Opened | not applicable — see below (This is very likely the same physical ground as the already-published Pen-y-graig/Mid Rhondda Athletic Ground entry (Tonypandy), not a genuinely separate venue — but hosting a different, specific fixture. The name "King George's Field" is almost certainly anachronistic for a match dated October 1908: George V did not become king until May 1910, and the "King George's Fields" naming convention used across Britain originates from a 1936 memorial scheme launched after his death. Wikipedia's own Mid-Rhondda RLFC article describes this same 3 October 1908 fixture as played at "the Athletic Ground" (i.e. Mid Rhondda's home ground) without using the "King George's Field" name at all, while a separate Wikipedia tour article uses "King George's Field, Tonypandy" for the identical date, score and crowd — an internal inconsistency on Wikipedia's own side that we have not been able to resolve further.) |
| Home club | see the main write-up under Pen-y-graig/Mid Rhondda Athletic Ground |
| Games hosted (rugby league, on record) | 1 |
| Top recorded crowd | 7,500 |
| Test matches hosted | 1 |
| First rugby league match | 3 October 1908 — Australia 20-6 Mid-Rhondda, opening match of the historic 1908-09 Kangaroo tour of Great Britain (attendance 7,500, our recorded top and only crowd) |
| Years used | 1908 |
| Location | Tonypandy, Rhondda Cynon Taff |
Name history
- King George's Field — the name used in Rugby League Project's own records for this specific fixture — very likely a retrospectively/incorrectly applied label for the Mid Rhondda Athletic Ground, covered in full under our separate Pen-y-graig entry
Rugby league history
This was the very first match of the touring 1908-09 Kangaroos — a genuinely significant, well-documented fixture in rugby league history, distinct from the earlier Wales vs England international (20 April 1908, 12,000 crowd) already covered on this site under the Pen-y-graig entry. Both matches almost certainly took place at the same Mid Rhondda ground within the same eventful year for the short-lived South Wales rugby league experiment, rather than at two different Tonypandy venues.
Historic Test matches, Cup & Grand Finals hosted
- 3 October 1908 — Australia 20-6 Mid-Rhondda (7,500)
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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