Ellis Park

Emirates Airline Park, also popularly known by its old name Ellis Park Stadium, was constructed in 1928 and was first named for Mr J.D. Ellis who initially made the land for the stadium available. The stadium is home to Johannesburg's rugby team, the Highveld Lions, and accommodates around 60,000 spectators. Used primarily for rugby games, the stadium has also hosted other large scale events such as international soccer matches and concerts.

The Emirates Airline Park has been the site of numerous significant milestones in South African sporting history, most memorably the 1995 Rugby World Cup Final, where South Africa recorded its first major international sporting achievement after years of isolation. On 24 June 1995 the South African national rugby team, the Springboks, defeated New Zealand’s All Blacks 15-12 in the Rugby World Cup at this stadium. The event became an international news story as the country’s first democratically elected president, Nelson Mandela, took to the pitch wearing a Springboks shirt to hand the trophy to Springbok captain Francois Pienaar. South Africans of all races were united in celebration and that moment is considered a key stepping stone towards the creation of a united South Africa after decades of systematised racial discrimination. In 2009, the event was adapted for film - Invictus - by Hollywood director Clint Eastwood.