Lansdowne Road stood in the Ballsbridge neighbourhood of Dublin 4 for 134 years, and for every one of them it carried a title no other rugby ground on earth could claim: the world’s oldest rugby union Test venue. Long before Twickenham, Murrayfield, or the Aviva Stadium hosted a single international, players were already lining out on this reclaimed patch of railway land beside the River Dodder.
This guide covers exactly how Lansdowne Road earned that record, how the ground physically grew from a Victorian multi-sport field into a near-50,000-capacity stadium, how its numbers stack up against the Aviva Stadium that replaced it, and what a visitor can still find on the site today.
Quick Answer
Lansdowne Road, in Ballsbridge, Dublin, opened in 1872 and hosted its first rugby international on 11 March 1878 (Ireland vs England), making it the world’s oldest rugby union Test venue. It closed after its final match on 31 December 2006, was demolished starting 17 May 2007, and was replaced on the same footprint by the Aviva Stadium, which officially opened on 14 May 2010.
Why Lansdowne Road Is the World’s Oldest Rugby Test Venue
Henry Dunlop, a Trinity College Dublin engineering graduate and prominent athletics organiser, leased the Ballsbridge land in 1872. He raised the boggy site using roughly 300 cartloads of soil excavated from a nearby railway cutting, then laid out a genuinely multi-sport ground — athletics, cricket, lawn tennis, archery, croquet, and cycling all shared the space alongside his newly founded Lansdowne Football Club.
Rugby became the ground’s defining sport quickly. The first representative fixture, an interprovincial between Leinster and Ulster, was played in December 1876. On 11 March 1878, Lansdowne Road hosted its first full rugby international, Ireland against England (England won by three tries to nil). Because no older ground has hosted a rugby Test continuously since, Lansdowne Road held the ‘world’s oldest Test venue’ title for the entirety of its 128-year international career, right up to its closure in 2006. The stadium’s name simply came from the adjoining street, itself named after William Petty-Fitzmaurice, 1st Marquess of Lansdowne — the ground was never named for a person connected to the club.
Capacity, Record Attendance & How the Ground Grew
Lansdowne Road wasn’t built all at once — it was extended piecemeal over 13 decades. A covered stand was first built alongside the railway line in 1908; the old East Stand followed in 1927; an Upper West Stand added roughly 8,000 seats in 1954; the West Lower Stand was demolished and rebuilt in 1977-78; a new East Stand replaced the old one in 1983, funded by the sale of ten-year debenture tickets; and floodlights, allowing midweek evening fixtures, weren’t installed until 1993.
By its final years the ground’s total capacity stood at around 49,250, of which roughly 25,000 were seats — the rest standing terraces at the north and south ends. Because FIFA and UEFA require all-seated venues for competitive internationals, the Republic of Ireland’s football fixtures were capped at 36,000. The stadium’s biggest recorded crowds were 48,500 for a Republic of Ireland vs France match in 1981 and again for a Heineken Cup quarter-final between Leinster and Leicester in April 2005 — with a near-identical 48,000 turning out for the ground’s very last match, a Celtic League derby between Leinster and Ulster on 31 December 2006.
Lansdowne Road vs Aviva Stadium: What Changed
The Aviva Stadium was built on the exact same Ballsbridge site as Lansdowne Road, but it is a different building in almost every respect. It opened to the public on 14 May 2010, with Ireland’s first competitive matches there following later that year — a football friendly against Argentina on 11 August and a rugby Test against South Africa on 6 November.
Where the old ground’s capacity topped out near 49,250 with about half the seats standing terraces, the Aviva is a fully seated stadium holding just over 51,000 — remarkable given its footprint is smaller than Lansdowne Road’s, since the site is boxed in by houses with legal ‘rights to light’ on two sides and the railway line on a third. That constraint produced the Aviva’s distinctive swooping, asymmetrical roofline. Dressing rooms grew from cramped facilities built for 15-a-side squads to modern U-shaped rooms for 28 players, and a wartime memorial to IRFU members who died in the First World War, originally sited inside the old ground, was preserved and relocated outside the new stadium’s media centre — a deliberate thread of continuity between the two grounds. The ‘Aviva’ name itself isn’t a rebrand of Lansdowne Road — it comes from a long-running stadium naming-rights sponsorship with the insurer Aviva, first struck around the 2010 reopening and since extended, most recently out to 2030.
Memorable Matches and Events at the Old Ground
Rugby aside, Lansdowne Road had a genuinely dual sporting identity. Association football arrived on 17 March 1900, when Ireland lost 2-0 to England in the ground’s first football international, and the venue went on to host FAI Cup finals from 1990 to 2006 as well as a Republic of Ireland home for decades. Club rugby’s biggest night came twice, with Heineken Cup finals staged there in 1999 and 2003.
The ground also proved its versatility outside football and rugby: in 1988 it hosted the Emerald Isle Classic, an NCAA American football fixture between Boston College and Army in front of over 42,000 fans, and in 2004 it stood in for Shelbourne’s own ground to host a UEFA Champions League qualifier against Deportivo La Coruña. Not every occasion was celebratory — a 1995 Ireland-England football friendly was abandoned after 27 minutes when visiting hooligans rioted in the stands.
Closure, Demolition & the Move to Aviva Stadium
By the early 2000s, Lansdowne Road’s Victorian and mid-century infrastructure could no longer meet modern safety, comfort, and accessibility standards, and its part-terraced layout was increasingly out of step with all-seat requirements for top-level rugby and football. The IRFU and FAI opted for a full rebuild rather than another round of patchwork extensions, and the ground played its last-ever fixtures at the end of 2006, including a farewell rugby international against the Pacific Islanders on 26 November and a final football international, a 5-0 win over San Marino, on 15 November.
Demolition began on 17 May 2007, starting with the South Terrace before contractors worked through the West and East Stands, with the internal fixtures and fittings stripped out in the preceding weeks. Construction of the new stadium then ran for roughly three years on the cleared site, culminating in the Aviva Stadium’s opening on 14 May 2010 — meaning Dublin went without a national rugby or football stadium on this site for more than three years, with Ireland’s home fixtures during that gap played at Croke Park instead.
Visiting the Site Today
There’s no trace of the original Victorian stands left to see — the entire 1872 structure was cleared during the 2007 demolition. What stands on the site now is the Aviva Stadium, a fully functioning 51,700-plus capacity venue that hosts Ireland rugby and football internationals, club fixtures, concerts, and conferences year-round. The one physical link between the two eras is the First World War memorial from the old ground, relocated just outside the Aviva’s media centre, along with historical displays inside the stadium referencing Lansdowne Road’s 134-year history.
If you want to see the site in person, the practical way in is via a stadium event or a scheduled stadium tour, both of which are booked directly through the venue rather than through this site. For current fixtures, tour availability, and directions, check the official Aviva Stadium website.
Lansdowne Road Stadium FAQs
Is Lansdowne Road still standing today?
No. The original 1872 stadium was fully demolished starting 17 May 2007. The Aviva Stadium, which opened 14 May 2010, now stands on the exact same Ballsbridge site.
Why is Lansdowne Road now called Aviva Stadium?
It wasn’t renamed — it was demolished and rebuilt from the ground up. The new stadium’s name comes from a long-term stadium naming-rights sponsorship with the insurer Aviva, agreed around its 2010 reopening and since extended, most recently through 2030.
What was Lansdowne Road’s capacity at its largest?
Around 49,250 in total, of which roughly 25,000 were seats — the remainder was standing terracing at the North and South ends, which is why UEFA and FIFA capped competitive football fixtures there at 36,000.
Is anything from the old stadium still visible at the Aviva Stadium?
Yes. A memorial to IRFU members who died in the First World War was preserved from the old ground and now stands just outside the Aviva Stadium’s media centre.
What was the last match played at Lansdowne Road?
The final fixture at the old ground was a Celtic League derby between Leinster and Ulster on 31 December 2006, watched by around 48,000 fans — matching the stadium’s all-time attendance record.
How does the Aviva Stadium’s capacity compare to Lansdowne Road’s?
The Aviva Stadium holds just over 51,000, all seated — more total capacity than Lansdowne Road’s roughly 49,250 mixed seating-and-terracing capacity, despite sitting on a tighter footprint boxed in by neighbouring houses and the rail line.
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