EPRU Stadium, also known by its original name of Boet Erasmus Stadium, was a

stadium A stadium (: stadiums or stadia) is a place or venue for (mostly) outdoor sports, concerts, or other events and consists of a field or stage completely or partially surrounded by a tiered structure designed to allow spectators to stand or sit ...

Port Elizabeth Gqeberha ( , ), formerly named Port Elizabeth, and colloquially referred to as P.E., is a major seaport and the most populous city in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. It is the seat of the Nelson Mandela Bay Metropolitan Municipal ...

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

. The letters "EPRU" in the name represent the Eastern Province Rugby Union, the stadium's historic primary tenants, whose team is now known as the Mighty Elephants. The original name Boet Erasmus Stadium was named after Boet Erasmus, a former mayor of

. It had a capacity of 33,852 people and served primarily as a venue for

rugby union Rugby union football, commonly known simply as rugby union in English-speaking countries and rugby 15/XV in non-English-speaking world, Anglophone Europe, or often just rugby, is a Contact sport#Terminology, close-contact team sport that orig ...

matches but also hosted a number of

association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...

(soccer) fixtures. The stadium closed in 2010 and was demolished in 2019.

Background

Music

On 6 March 2007, Irish vocal pop band

Westlife Westlife are an Irish pop group formed in Dublin in 1998. The group consists of members Nicky Byrne, Shane Filan, Kian Egan and Mark Feehily. Brian McFadden was a member before leaving in March 2004. The group disbanded in 2012 and later reun ...

held a concert during '' The Love Tour'', in-support of their record, '' The Love Album''.

French Canadian French Canadians, referred to as Canadiens mainly before the nineteenth century, are an ethnic group descended from French people, French colonists first arriving in Canada (New France), France's colony of Canada in 1608. The vast majority of ...

singer

Céline Dion Céline Marie Claudette Dion (born 30 March 1968) is a Canadian singer. Referred to as the " Queen of Power Ballads", Dion's powerful, technically skilled vocals and commercially successful works have had a significant impact on popular musi ...

performed for over 17,000 people on 27 February 2008 during her '' Taking Chances World Tour''.

Rugby

Boet Erasmus stadium was primarily used as the home of rugby in the Eastern Cape. Situated in the affluent suburb of

Summerstrand Summerstrand is a seaside suburb of Gqeberha in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. It is located south-east of the Gqeberha city centre. It is primarily a residential suburb along with shopping and business facilities. It is also home t ...

, it hosted matches at Test,

Super Rugby Super Rugby is a men's professional rugby union club competition involving teams from Australia, Fiji, New Zealand, and the Pacific Islands. It has previously included teams from Argentina, Japan, and South Africa. Super Rugby started as the S ...

Currie Cup The Currie Cup () is South Africa's premier domestic rugby union competition featuring teams representing either entire provinces or substantial regions within provinces. Although it is the premier domestic competition, four South African franc ...

Vodacom Cup The Vodacom Cup was an annual rugby union competition in South Africa. Annual Vodacom Cup competitions were played between its inaugural season in 1998 and 2015 and was contested between February and May each year. The Vodacom Cup was the succes ...

and club level. It was regularly used by the Eastern Province Elephants under their previous names, the Mighty Elephants and the Eastern Province Kings and hosted their two home matches during the 1994 Super 10 season. The stadium was also the intended home of the Southern Spears, a team that was scheduled to play in the 2006 Currie Cup in preparation for its admission to the

starting in 2007. However, the Spears were later denied entry into both competitions. The stadium is credited for being the first stomping ground of a number of ''Springbok'' legends, included in which are Danie Gerber, Garth Wright, Frans Erasmus and Hannes Marias.

The Battle of Boet Erasmus

In 1974, during the 1974 British Lions tour to South Africa, one of the most violent matches in rugby history was dubbed the "Battle of Boet Erasmus Stadium". After a

99 call In rugby union, the "99" call was a policy of simultaneous retaliation by the British Lions during their 1974 tour to South Africa. The tour was marred by on-pitch violence, which the match officials did little to control and the relative abse ...

by Lions, there is famous video footage of J. P. R. Williams running over half of the pitch and launching himself at Moaner van Heerden, something that Williams says he is not proud of.

Gordon Brown James Gordon Brown (born 20 February 1951) is a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Labour Party (UK), Leader of the Labour Party from 2007 to 2010. Previously, he was Chancellor of the Ex ...

hit his opposite number,

Johan de Bruyn Johan de Bruyn (born 12 October 1948) is a former South African rugby union player. Playing career De Bruyn played his provincial rugby for the Free State. In 1974 he was selected at lock for the Springboks, for the third test against the t ...

, so hard that the Orange Free State man's glass eye flew out and landed in the mud. At the

1995 Rugby World Cup The 1995 Rugby World Cup (), was the third Rugby World Cup. It was hosted and won by South Africa, and was the first Rugby World Cup in which every match was held in one country. The World Cup was the first major sporting event to take place in ...

on 3 June 1995,

took on

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in a clash that has also sometimes been dubbed the Battle of Boet Erasmus. The match, which South Africa ultimately won 20–0, was marred by an on-field scuffle with four players involved in a brawl. South Africa hooker James Dalton, who had come to the aid of a teammate who had been struck on the back of the head, and winger

Pieter Hendriks Pieter Hendriks (born 13 April 1970), is a former South African rugby union player who played for the South Africa national rugby union team between 1992 and 1996. Playing career Hendriks represented the South Eastern Transvaal Schools team at ...

were suspended for the remainder of the tournament for their roles in the incident and could only watch from the sidelines as the nation went on to claim its first Rugby World Cup title.

Soccer

The stadium was used as the home ground for Port Elizabeth's, Bay United F.C. who moved to the stadium for their 2008/2009 season in the

Premier Soccer League The Premier Soccer League (PSL) is the administrative body for professional soccer leagues and cups in South Africa. It is based in Johannesburg, and was founded in 1996 following an agreement between the National Soccer League and the remnant ...

. The club used the stadium again at times during their 2009/2010 campaign in the

National First Division The South African Championship, officially known as the Motsepe Foundation Championship for sponsorship reasons, is the second-highest league of South African football after the South African Premiership. Both the South African Championship and ...

. This was due to availability problems with their preferred home ground, the Westbourne Oval.

Closure and abandonment

The stadium was officially closed in July 2010. The Eastern Province Rugby Union has moved all games to the new world class

Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium The Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium is a association football, soccer and rugby union stadium in Gqeberha in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. It hosted 2010 FIFA World Cup matches, including the third-place play off. It is the home of Chip ...

in Port Elizabeth. The last match to be played at the stadium was a friendly against the Blue Bulls on 3 July 2010. ''The Boet'' hosted age-group, amateur and club rugby matches after being officially closed but has since been abandoned, with vagrants and thieves having slowly dismantled the stadium to such an extent that all that remains are the concrete structures. The local municipality, who own the property, has asked for proposals from the private sector for the redevelopment of the land. The stadium was demolished in 2019.

International tournaments

1995 Rugby World Cup

The stadium was one of 9 venues throughout South Africa used for the Rugby World Cup. The stadium was used for group games in Group A. It hosted 3 games, including the match between South Africa and Canada:

1996 African Cup of Nations

When the tournament was moved to South Africa, the EPRU Stadium was chosen as one of 4 host stadiums. A total of 6 pool games were played at the stadium, as well as a quarter-final:

2010 FIFA World Cup

During the

2010 FIFA World Cup The 2010 FIFA World Cup was the 19th FIFA World Cup, the world championship for List of men's national association football teams, men's national Association football, football teams. It took place in South Africa from 11 June to 11 July 2010. ...

, the stadium was used as a logistics point for Port Elizabeth, a host city.

International matches

Rugby Union

South Africa National Football Team

References

External links

Photos of Stadiums in South Africa
a
cafe.daum.net/stade
{{DEFAULTSORT:Eprfu Stadium Soccer venues in South Africa Rugby union stadiums in South Africa Buildings and structures in Gqeberha Sport in Gqeberha Sports venues in the Eastern Cape Sports venues demolished in 2019 Demolished buildings and structures in South Africa