The Danie Craven Stadium is a

rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In its m ...

stadium in

Stellenbosch Stellenbosch (; )A Universal Pronounc ...

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

. Built in 1979, it is part of the

Stellenbosch University Stellenbosch University ( af, Universiteit Stellenbosch) is a public research university situated in Stellenbosch, a town in the Western Cape province of South Africa. Stellenbosch is the oldest university in South Africa and the oldest extant ...

's sport facilities. The stadium was named after rugby doyen and

Springbok The springbok (''Antidorcas marsupialis'') is a medium-sized antelope found mainly in south and southwest Africa. The sole member of the genus ''Antidorcas'', this bovid was first described by the German zoologist Eberhard August Wilhelm v ...

scrum half

Danie Craven Daniël Hartman Craven (11 October 1910 – 4 January 1993) was a South African rugby union player (1931–1938), national coach, national and international rugby administrator, academic, and author. Popularly known as Danie, Doc, or Mr R ...

. The stadium holds 16,000 people. The stadium was built on a portion of the old Coetsenburg Estate which was founded by

Dirk Coetsee Dirk Coetzee/Coetsee (1655 – 1725) was the Hoofdheemraad (Chancellor) of the District of Stellenbosch and Drakenstein in South Africa for most of the 1690s and early 1700s. He also served as captain of the Stellenbosch Infantry and deacon of th ...

in 1682 after a grant of land from the Dutch Governor of the Cape Colony

Simon van der Stel Simon van der Stel (14 October 1639 – 24 June 1712) was the last commander and first Governor of the Dutch Cape Colony, the settlement at the Cape of Good Hope. Background Simon was the son of Adriaan van der Steland Maria Lievens ...

. The Danie Craven Stadium has mostly been used for

rugby Rugby may refer to: Sport * Rugby football in many forms: ** Rugby league: 13 players per side *** Masters Rugby League *** Mod league *** Rugby league nines *** Rugby league sevens *** Touch (sport) *** Wheelchair rugby league ** Rugby union: 1 ...

matches. The stadium played host to several games of the

Varsity Cup Varsity Cup is the collective name for four South African rugby union competitions involving the top rugby playing universities in the country. It was launched in 2008, with eight teams participating in the Varsity Cup competition and each univers ...

, South Africa's premier inter-university rugby tournament since 2008. In the first three years of the Varsity Cup (2008–2010) the final also took place at the stadium. In 2008 the final was played between Maties (

) and the

Ikey Tigers The Ikey Tigers are a South African rugby union team from the University of Cape Town in the Western Cape who compete in the FNB Varsity Cup. History The "Ikey" nickname originated in the 1910s as an anti-semitic epithet applied to UCT stude ...

(

University of Cape Town The University of Cape Town (UCT) ( af, Universiteit van Kaapstad, xh, Yunibesithi ya yaseKapa) is a public research university in Cape Town, South Africa. Established in 1829 as the South African College, it was granted full university statu ...

). In 2009 the final was played between Maties and Pukke (

North-West University af , Noordwes-Universiteit , image = https://www.nwu.ac.za/sites/www.nwu.ac.za/files/NWU-Logo-SW.png , motto = ''Dit Begin Alles Hier (Afrikaans)'' ''Gotlhe Go Simolola Fano (Setswana)'' , mottoeng ...

). In 2010, the final was – again – played between the Maties and the Ikey Tigers. The Maties won these three tournaments. Subsequently the Varsity Cup final has been played in this stadium in 2013 (Maties lost to

University of Pretoria The University of Pretoria ( af, Universiteit van Pretoria, nso, Yunibesithi ya Pretoria) is a multi-campus public university, public research university in Pretoria, the administrative and de facto capital of South Africa. The university was ...

Tuks), 2016 (Maties lost to Pukke), 2018 and 2019 (Maties beat Pukke and Tuks respectively). In 2020,

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

club Stellenbosch F.C. started using the stadium for most of its matches played at home. In 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 Sou ...

, the stadium hosted the game between

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

and

Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern, and Southeast Europe, Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, S ...

on 3 June. The stadium also played host to the 2007 Touch Football World Cup where it saw Australia claim the title of World Champions for another four years.

References

External links

CricInfo: Danie Craven Stadium
South Africa ground profile on

CricInfo ESPN cricinfo (formerly known as Cricinfo or CricInfo) is a sports news website exclusively for the game of cricket. The site features news, articles, live coverage of cricket matches (including liveblogs and scorecards), and ''StatsGuru'', a d ...

.
Cricket Archive page

FNB Varsity Cup
Rugby union stadiums in South Africa Cricket grounds in South Africa Stellenbosch Rugby World Cup stadiums Multi-purpose stadiums in South Africa Sports venues in the Western Cape Sports venues completed in 1979 Cross country running venues World Rugby Sevens Series venues {{SouthAfrica-sports-venue-stub

See also

References

External links