Kingsmead
Durban, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa
Kingsmead, Durban, South Africa — opened 18 January 1923, 2 rugby league games hosted, home of primarily a cricket ground — historic home of the Natal/KwaZulu-Natal cricket team, today the Hollywoodbets Dolphins; no rugby league club was ever a tenant — two one-off international fixtures.
Sourcing caveat: Floodlight and playing-surface specifics for the 1957/1962 era were not found in any source.
Ground facts
| Opened | 18 January 1923 (Opened as a cricket ground (first Test: South Africa vs England); later renamed Hollywoodbets Kingsmead Stadium under a sponsorship deal from October 2019, long after the rugby league matches described here.) |
| Home club | primarily a cricket ground — historic home of the Natal/KwaZulu-Natal cricket team, today the Hollywoodbets Dolphins; no rugby league club was ever a tenant — two one-off international fixtures |
| Games hosted (rugby league, on record) | 2 |
| Top recorded crowd | 8,000 |
| Capacity | approximately 25,000 today (a period-specific 1957/1962 figure was not found) |
| Test matches hosted | 2 |
| First rugby league match | 24 July 1957 — Great Britain 32-11 France, part of an ad hoc promotional Great Britain/France touring visit to South Africa (attendance 8,000, our recorded top crowd) |
| Years used | 1957–1962 |
| Location | Durban, KwaZulu-Natal |
Name history
- Kingsmead — 1923–present, in use throughout the rugby league era described here
Rugby league history
The 1957 fixture was part of the same short, ad hoc promotional Great Britain/France touring visit to South Africa that also produced the already-published Willowmore Park match four days earlier (20 July 1957) — a specialist South African rugby league history source independently corroborates that this 1950s tour played matches specifically in "Benoni and Durban," with a third planned match at East London never taking place, consistent with exactly these two recorded fixtures. The 1962 fixture came five years later, as the middle leg of the touring Great Britain Lions' brief South African stop (also including Berea Park, Pretoria and Ellis Park, Johannesburg, both covered elsewhere on this site).
A historic cricket ground, home of the Natal/KwaZulu-Natal (now Hollywoodbets Dolphins) cricket team.
Historic Test matches, Cup & Grand Finals hosted
- 24 July 1957 — Great Britain 32-11 France (8,000)
- 25 August 1962 — South Africa 33-39 Great Britain, second of a 3-match South African leg of the 1962 Great Britain Lions tour (attendance 3,000)
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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