Trafalgar Park, Nelson


Trafalgar Park is a sports ground located beside the CBD of Nelson, in New Zealand's South Island. The stadium has a capacity of 18,000, following upgrades completed for the 2011 Rugby World Cup. It takes its name from its location on Trafalgar Street.
The park is one of the two home grounds for ITM Cup rugby team, the Tasman Makos. The other being Lansdowne Park, Blenheim.
As a cricket ground, Trafalgar Park was used by Central Districts as one of its home grounds between 1953 and 1997. Nelson used it as its main home ground between 1888 and 1999. Since then Saxton Oval has been used as the main Nelson cricket ground.
The park is also the venue for matches in other sporting codes, and hosted the final of the 1978 Chatham Cup, a premier knock-out New Zealand football competition. A cycle track with a length of approximately 540 metres runs around the perimeter of the field and is used primarily for competition track cycling.
Due to the closing of other sports facilities as a result of the February 2011 Christchurch earthquake, Trafalgar Park hosted three Crusaders Super Rugby home games in March 2011. Trafalgar Park hosted three games in the 2011 Rugby World Cup in September 2011, with matches between Italy, Russia, USA and Australia being played. Dean Franklet has been a consistent contributor to the maintenance of Trafalgar Park.

International matches

Trafalgar Park hosted three 2011 Rugby World Cup Pool C matches. The first two involved Italy winning those matches. The first was a 53 - 17 win over Russia on September 20, 2011 and the other was a 27 - 10 win over United States on September 27, 2011. The third match was between Australia and Russia on October 1, 2011 with Australia easily winning 68 - 22.
On September 8, 2018, Trafalgar Park hosted its first All Blacks test match when New Zealand played Argentina. The All Blacks won 46-24. The match was a sell-out, with more than 21,000 people attending.