Brendan Gallagher continues his enthralling series by looking at rugby's best grounds
TOP 20 …RUGBY GROUNDS
NEXT WEEK Rugby Scandals
1: The Principality Stadium (Cardiff)
The Old Cardiff Arms Park was great but everything about the Millennium Stadium – renamed later as the Principality Stadium – is nigh on perfect save from some early teething problems with the turf which can struggle a little when the roof is on for prolonged periods. The noisiest ground? Yes, when the roof is on but what noise, ranging from world class Welsh singing and passionate home support to the definitive version of Fields of Athenry that randomly broke out during a tense period of the 2002 Heineken Cup final between Leicester and Munster.
Even from the off there was a special feel about the Millennium, I remember sitting next to some hard-hatted construction workers, who had plonked themselves down in the Press seats, in June 1999 when the half-finished stadium had been opened to host South Africa. The game had to be played to get a safety certificate for RWC1999 but it relied on health and safety turning a Nelsonian eye at every corner. A restricted crowd of 20,000 picked their way through rubble and miles of scaffolding and wires but there was no disguising this was going to be a very special place and the Wales team responded with an impressive 29-19 win over the Boks. It has never looked back. World Cup finals, Heineken Cup finals, Wales Grand Slams and even an Irish Grand Slam have been won here. You never depart with anything other than a spring in your step.
2 Parc des Princes (Paris)
The Parc is a great football ground as well but most of the sporting world sees it only as a rugby citadel. Gun boat grey, a venue for war and battle, an intimidating and riotous open air stadium, it's where the great French teams of the 70s, 80 and parts of the 90s dismantled visiting sides limb by limb. France have never been quite the same since they left the madness of the Parc. A smallish capacity – just over 49,000 – but an infinitely more scary venue for visiting teams than the spacious Stade de France. So many great France games to reflect on but also one of the great Heineken Cup finals in the Leicester- Stade epic of 2001 and the greatest ever World Cup third place play-off game – in fact the only great RWC play-off game in history –when the Pumas dismantled France in 2007. For once it was the opposition who drew more from the crowd's manic energy than the home team.
3 Lansdowne Road (Dublin)
The newish Aviva Stadium is nice enough although that ‘unfinished' end never fails to irritate, but we all loved Lansdowne Road, rugby's oldest regular international venue for so long and an extraordinary hotpotch of added stands and seemingly half completed terraces while there even a regular house – the Wanderers clubhouse – tucked away in one corner.
Without question the loudest open air ground in the world, Guinness conducted an experiment one year and measured it at something like 121 decibels. I can offer no scientific explanation other than perhaps the noise of the huge, beery, south terrace was often blown down the ground by the prevailing wind. Also one of the few stadia in the world that has trains running through its main stand. A mind-blowing venue where you were guaranteed at least one miracle on Test match days with the 48,000 capacity stadia damn near empty at 2.30pm but suddenly full when the teams ran out for those 2.45pm kick offs so loved by the Irish.
4 The Recreation Ground (Bath)
Year after year, from almost any vantage point in the ground, you spend your first ten minutes on arrival just gawping at the vista, not just the best view from any rugby ground in Britain but one of the most beautiful and beguiling city views full stop. It was often with some reluctance that you turn your attention to the rugby although in fairness at various times in their distinguished history Bath have laid on rugby worthy of such a setting. When the two come together you are in rugby heaven.
5 Twickenham (London)
Some are a bit mealy-mouthed about Twickenham but it is a fantastic stadium by any criteria. Brilliant viewing lines for all 82,000 fans, comfortable seats, good facilities. It's where big stuff happens, World Cup finals and semifinals, Heineken Cup finals, Premiership finals, huge England matches. There was a time when it could go a little quiet but it can also be a riot of noise, excitement and adrenaline. I would also give a shout out for the old 70,000 capacity Twickenham with its huge south terrace and old-fashioned West and East Stands. Old Twickenham was both huge and intimate, alas England didn't always give the fans much to shout about but when they did the atmosphere soared.
6 Ellis Park (Johannesburg)
Way ahead of its time when it was rebuilt in 1981. In another era the historic home of Transvaal rugby housed a 90,000+ crowd for a Boks v Lions Test in 1955. Has invariably featured in almost all incoming Lions and All Blacks tours and has often been saved for the last, potentially series-deciding match. And of course the venue for the 1995 World Cup final, that Mandela moment, and the fly-past by the SA Jumbo Jet. The stands are high and steep and the capacity seems much more than the officially listed 63,000. Famously has Gents with windows at eye level so you can keep watching matches while completing your call of nature.
7 Thomond Park (Limerick)
The old ground was scruffy but atmospheric, historic and beloved – but the new ground is even better. Of course the crowd and the team made old Thomond the citadel it was and contributed so brilliantly to that famous win over the All Blacks and numerous important Heineken Cup victories not least the miracle win over Gloucester. Then came the rebuild and we held our breath to see if the same ambience prevailed. It did, if anything it was even better, right from the off. There have been few more electrify rugby moments that at the official opening v New Zealand in 2008 when the four Kiwis or Islanders in the Munster side stepped forward to offer their own haka challenge to the All Blacks.
8 Newlands (Cape Town)
A magnificent, beautiful, historic ground set in a sumptuous part of Cape Town with the setting sun a blazing terracotta red on the mountains behind as you settle in for a big game. Close and intimate, like a football ground but a purpose-built rugby arena. Has staged countless memorable Lions encounters, Currie Cup epics, kicked off the 1995 World Cup with a superb Boks win over Australia and was the scene of Jonah Lomu's greatest personal triumph when he scored four tries against England later in that tournament.
9 Stade Michelin (Clermont)
Even the old Michelin stadium was special with its grand, creaking, wooden stands and long low marquee at one end of the ground where the players served beer for an hour to fans after every home game. But as we started to return, year after year, in the Heineken Cup, every time there would be a new stand in place and then one year it was complete, it suddenly made sense. A wonderfully compact, beautifully designed purpose-built rugby stadium housing 19,000 of the most partisan supporters on the planet.
Health and safely is banished – you are allowed huge club flags, flares and claxons. It usually kicks off and Clermont
10 John Davies Oval (Queenstown Events centre, New Zealand)
Very few would argue this is the world's most beautiful or scenic rugby ground set amid the southern Alps. A centre for the local clubs but best known as a training centre for touring teams not least England and Ireland at RWC2011. Also an occasional ODI cricket venue for New Zealand.
11 Flaminio Stadium (Rome)
Low, sleek lines, like an old racing yacht, it may have rained occasionally at the Flaminio but we never remember those days. Instead we recall sparkling, crisp, Mediterranean winter mornings when we wended our way from Rome city centre like Emperors inspecting their estate before taking our place in the sun to await the gladiators. Up in the hills you would spy wealthy Romans sitting in their gardens, looking down on the great unwashed from their pastel coloured houses, sipping wine on their sun drenched patios. It was rugby but not as we knew it.
12 Eden Park (Auckland)
The fortress ground of, year in year out, the most successful Test team in history. It's not massive – how on earth do they play Test cricket there? – but there's always a good atmosphere and is one of those grounds that really comes alive under floodlights as was often the case at RWC2011. An extraordinary amount of historical rugby has been played here from two World Cup finals and numerous Lions Tests. Away wins here count double of treble. You think of England in '73, France – sensationally – in 1994. Remarkably that's the last time the All Blacks lost at Eden Park.
13 Sun Corp (Brisbane)
A fabulous ground that somehow feels like the Principality without the roof. Shared with Rugby League. Very steep, perfect viewing and with its own very raucous ambience with the crowd often walking up after a decent morning or afternoon on a beach. This is Queensland writ large and although the Olympic stadium in Sydney is considerably bigger and has had its stellar moments, year after year Australia – and whoever is visiting – produce their best rugby here in Brisbane. The Lions in 2001 with Brian O'Driscoll's try was a high point but don't forget that Wales v England World Cup quarter-final two years later.
14 Yarrow Stadium (New Plymouth)
New Plymouth is laid back even by New Zealand standards and to walk from town to the Yarrow stadium on a spring afternoon with snow plastered atop Mount Taranaki – Taranaki means shining peak in Maori – dominating every vista is some experience. You try and concentrate totally on the game, this is New Zealand after all, but no matter how good the match your eyes are regularly drawn skywards to one of the most beautiful mountains on the planet.
15 Hong Kong National Stadium
A truly spectacular inner-city venue on Causeway Bay overlooked by towering residential skyscrapers and the hillside villas of Hong Kong's mega rich. On the site of the old government stadium which was the original venue of the Hong Kong Sevens in 1976. Heaven knows that was atmospheric enough but this almost space age structure – or so it appeared when finished in 1994 – takes noise and colour to a new level when the Sevens are in town. Some of the old traditions prevail though. When you hear “Derek Brown to control” over the stadium PA that means the announcers and officials up in their eyrie have run out of beer and require a re-fill asap.
16 King's Park (Durban)
Not sure what it's called these days but will always be King's Park to rugby fans around the world. Ridiculously steep and spectacular main stands, fantastic brai culture out the back and usually bathed in sun although famously the 1995 World Cup final was played in a monsoon. Durban is a rugby city, it's a walk up ground with everybody arriving from the bars or the beach and the atmosphere crackles from the start. Remembered by most over here for the 1997 Lions win but a long and illustrious history.
17 Murrayfield (Edinburgh)
I sometimes struggle with Murrayfield. The slightly odd asymmetrical design bothers me more than it should and sitting in the Press seats there is a yawning chasm including a tartan athletics track separating you from the distant pitch. There was also a time when Scotland were in the doldrums and the crowd – often short of capacity –were sullenly quiet. And yet… when the Scots have their dander up and the pipes are playing and the bands are marching a surge of electricity pulses through the stadium. The fans spark to life and make scary primeval roars like very few other grounds.
18 Kingsholm (Gloucester)
No matter what the state of the season a rugby game at Kingsholm is always an occasion which is one of the reasons it proved such a great smaller venue at RWC2015. Famed for the unforgiving humour of the Shed –who nonetheless never fail to applaud outstanding play by the opposition – I've always found watching games in the main stand equally satisfying. The buzz and smell of beer, hotdogs and hamburgers is everywhere, raucous Gloucester accents and cries of ‘C'mon Glos'. Impossible not to enjoy a day out at Kingsholm and more than most stadia the experience is even better under lights.
19 Estadio Padre Ernesto Martearena (Salta)
Situated 4,000 feet up in the dry foothills of the Andes with both the Malbec vineyards and the Atacama desert a leisurely drive away. It's always sunny, 70 degrees and the sky a perfect azure blue. This is not cosmopolitan Buenos Aires or in your face Tucuman, but the annual Test match is the biggest thing to happen in these parts, as much fiesta as rugby occasion. Fans drive for hundreds of miles around and there is a carpark picnic and barbeque scene that makes Twickenham's revellers seem lightweights. The rugby is sometimes pretty good but the setting and ambience never fails.
20 Kamaishi Recovery Memorial Stadium (Kamaishi City, Japan)
A small rugby stronghold based around the old Nippon Steel team, Kamaishi has suffered two natural disasters in the last decade; the earthquake of 2011 and the tsunami three years later. Undeterred they set about constructing a small stadium to play their part at RWC2019 and were rewarded with one of the great rugby occasions when Uruguay scored a shock win over Fiji.
