Rugby Park (Gisborne)
Gisborne, Gisborne, New Zealand
Rugby Park (Gisborne), Gisborne, New Zealand — opened 1955, 2 rugby league games hosted, home of Poverty Bay Rugby Football Union (rugby union).
Ground facts
| Opened | 1955 (Independently re-verified via direct WebFetch of Rugby League Project's own records page, which confirms the first match's exact date as 13/10/2005 (not 2021, as an earlier automated read of the results page had briefly misstated -- corrected here after cross-checking). Site used for horse racing (Gisborne Park Racing Club) from the early 1900s before the Rugby Union took it over and it opened as a rugby ground in 1955.) |
| Home club | Poverty Bay Rugby Football Union (rugby union) |
| Games hosted (rugby league, on record) | 2 |
| Top recorded crowd | 1,000 |
| Capacity | unknown (current grandstand redevelopment has 980 seats, but this reflects a 2020s rebuild, not the ground's historical condition) |
| Surface | grass |
| Years used | 2005–2021 |
| Location | Gisborne, Gisborne |
Name history
Rugby league history
Rugby Park is Gisborne's principal rugby ground, the long-time home of the Poverty Bay Rugby Football Union, a rugby union body, not rugby league. Its two rugby league appearances were one-off representative matches: a 2005 Cook Islands v NZ Maori international, part of a three-test October 2005 series, and a 2021 Queensland Cup fixture between Central Queensland (Capras) and Redcliffe -- the latter's location could not be independently corroborated beyond Rugby League Project's own record, and is somewhat unusual for a Queensland domestic competition match, so it is disclosed here without further confirmation.
Sources
Data last verified: 11 August 2026.
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