Fans put Bath top of the list when it comes to best ground
Paul Rees looks at the best and worst rugby grounds around the world as voted for by the fans
Bath may have suffered the indignity of finishing at the bottom of the Premiership for the first time last season, but their ground has been voted the most enjoyable in the rugby world to visit, pipping Leicester’s Welford Road.
Plans to upgrade the Recreation Ground and increase the capacity from just over 14,000 to 20,000, with most spectators seated, were first drawn up 13 years ago but immediately got bogged down in legal issues over The Rec’s Charitable Trust status.
Bath hope that a court ruling last December, which overturned the decision of a High Court judge that a now 100-year restrictive covenant on the land meant nothing could be built on the land, will finally allow them to develop the ground.
The ground poll was conducted by website liverugbytickets.com which analysed more than 15,000 TripAdvisor reviews for 45 different grounds where the two rugby codes have been played. It used four variables, atmosphere, cleanliness, affordability and food to reach a mark out of 10.
Bath came top with 9.5, hitting 9.8 for cleanliness and affordability. Welford Road scored nine. At the bottom was Estadio Ciudad de la Plata in Argentina, a ground which opened in 2003 and was renamed two years ago in honour of the late Diego Maradona.
It staged three Rugby Championship matches between 2012 and 2014 but despite having a roof which covers every spectator, its average was 0.3. The only other ground to score less than one was the Allianz Riviera in Nice which managed 0.6.
The Allianz Riviera will stage four matches in next year’s World Cup, when it will revert to Stade de Nice, all involving a Six Nations country. Wales are first up against the final qualifier before England face Japan in a meeting between head coach’s Eddie Jones’s current team against the one he led in the 2015 tournament. Italy-Uruguay then follows before Scotland take on the top Asia/Pacific team.
International grounds do not poll well. Twickenham is 22nd in the list, four places below Murrayfield, having posted the highest number of reviews. Its highest score was for affordability, 6.6, despite three-figure prices for some tickets, but it rated only 3.4 for cleanliness and 5.3 for atmosphere.
Murrayfield’s atmosphere rating was 4.46 while Dublin’s Aviva Stadium was a mere 2.55. They were above the Stade de France and the Olympic Stadium in Rome which was the worst scoring international ground at 1.0. The Principality Stadium is not on the list.
The ground with the best atmosphere is Mount Stuart Stadium, the home of the Auckland Warriors, with 9.78, just above The Rec and Northampton’s Franklin’s Gardens.
Six English grounds feature in the top 10. Exeter’s Sandy Park is fifth, once place above Twickenham Stoop which is followed by Saracens’ StoneX Stadium and Worcester’s Sixways. Franklin’s Gardens and Kingsholm are in the top 20.
While Bath finished above the rest, their West Country rivals Bristol were in the bottom 10 despite playing at Ashton Gate, a Championship football ground which has been redeveloped since 2013. Its score was 3.0 and it was rated 1.27 for affordability, scoring above half marks only for cleanliness.
Toulon’s Stade Mayol was the 12th worst ground, scoring just over one for affordability and food. Its 3.5 put it slightly below the Liberty Stadium, the Swansea home of the Ospreys, and the venue for the 1995 World Cup final between South Africa and New Zealand, Johannesburg’s Ellis Park.
Parc y Scarlets was fourth, one
“While Bath finished above the rest, their rivals Bristol were in the bottom 10”
place below St Helen’s Totally Wicked Stadium. It received a 9.6 rating for food, a total bettered only by Munster’s Thomond Park and was let down only by atmosphere, 6.4, not much of a surprise given the suppressed state of the regional game in Wales.
The only ground in the top 10 outside England and Ireland was AAMI Park in Melbourne, where the Melbourne Rebels played their first Super Rugby match in 2011. It hosted the 2016 Test between Australia and England which went 23-7 in favour of the visitors.
Stade de France, which will host next year’s World Cup final, came fifth from bottom. After the problems at this year’s European Champions Cup final between Real Madrid and Liverpool, it is perhaps as well for the French authorities that security was not among the categories.
It scored 1.9, dragged down by an atmosphere rating of 0.85. Another World Cup final venue, Stadium Australia, failed to impress fans. It scored 3.2, seven places below the ground for the 2011 final, Eden Park in Auckland which had a tally of 4.1, boosted by a high score for food.
The Aviva Stadium scored 4.4, although regular Ireland followers will be surprised at a low 2.55 mark for atmosphere, while another venue for next year’s World Cup, Matmut Atlantique in Bordeaux, came in at 3.5.
It is staging five matches next year with Ireland and Wales among the sides that will be travelling to the ground. Holders South Africa will take on Romania there on September 17.
The list is neither exhaustive nor definitive. The number of reviews assessed ranges from Twickenham’s 1,710 to the 51 for Franklin’s Gardens.
It provides a talking point and perhaps offers a nudge for unions with club grounds generally scoring higher than international venues. The best performing regular Test ground was Brisbane’s Suncorp Stadium, where England defeated the Wallabies last weekend.
It mustered 6.6 to finish to 13th, one place below Waikato’s FMG Stadium, which has hosted New Zealand and World Cup matches.
Sale’s AJ Bell Stadium was rated the worst of the Premiership grounds covered in terms of atmosphere, 1.48, but its 8.51 for cleanliness was one of the highest.
Only four grounds achieved a score of eight or higher and more than half received less than five. Racing 92’s La Defense Arena, regarded as state of the art, got 5.2, a figure that would be substantially higher but for its affordability rating of 0.21, the lowest of all the grounds.
“International grounds to not poll well... Twickenham is 22nd in the list”