Newlands Rugby Stadium played host to some big test matches in the past. Photograph: Phando Jikelo/African News Agency(ANA)
As the All Blacks and Springboks prepare to clash this weekend, it’s worth reflecting on the iconic venue that once played host to many momentous bouts between these rugby giants: Newlands Rugby Stadium.
It was Saturday, October 7, 2017 that the 52 0000-seater stadium last saw a test match between the Boks and the All Blacks when a last-gasp effort from Israel Dagg sent a wave of silence through the stands, and the Boks fell 24 - 25 to the All Blacks at the final whistle.
Today the stadium is a shadow of its former self - lines have faded, the grass is unkempt and the towering stands lie empty, but the cheers and gasps of multitudes at glories and defeats long past seem to echo there still.
After some debate about the future of the stadium, the Western Province Rugby Union announced in 2021 that it would be put on the market in a sealed bidding process. Reports on the rugby website, Rugby 365.com, earlier this year, claimed the stadium was subsequently sold for R250 million to an undisclosed buyer, but the deal stalled when former Springbok captain Wynand Claassen launched a bid in June last year to have the country's oldest rugby stadium declared a heritage site.
The likelihood of this happening remains unclear. A statement on Western Province Rugby’s website says: “Since the agreement was put in place over three years ago, Western Province Rugby has been engaged in finalising the sale of Newlands Stadium, which is no longer certified to host rugby matches.”
And Western Province Rugby’s general manager of amateur rugby, Danny Jones, said in a statement in 2021 that the sale of Newlands Rugby Stadium “remains crucial to the future of Western Province Rugby and we are hopeful that all stakeholders will do their utmost to ensure that happens”.
Meanwhile Cape Town Stadium, in Green Point, renamed the DHL Stadium in 2021, has now become the home ground of the DHL Stormers and Western Province Rugby’s other teams.
The new era at the Green Point stadium was made official at the start of the 2021 season with the Stormers going on to lift the Vodacom United Rugby Championship trophy in front of their faithful fans there in June 2022.
That moment signalled the end of Newlands Rugby Stadium’s more than 130-year-long history as a rugby venue.
As the second-oldest rugby stadium in the world, it traces its history back to 1888 when the Western Province and Football Union bought the ground where the stadium stands today.
The first official matches were played at the Newlands stadium on Saturday May 31 in 1890, when Villagers and Stellenbosch met in such muddy conditions that the curtain-raiser between Bishops and Hamiltons had to be cancelled.
There have been some titanic clashes between the Boks and the All Blacks at Newlands over the years. The first test match between the two on September 1 1928 saw the All Blacks carry the day with a 13-5 victory. And of the ten matches between the Boks and All Blacks held at Newlands, the Boks have only tasted victory in three of them.
They will, no doubt, be hoping to even things out a little this Saturday, albeit on a new battleground where future chapters in South Africa’s rugby history wait to be written.