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The RFUEA Ground is a rugby union stadium located on the Ngong Road in Nairobi, Kenya. It was purpose built to be the home of the national team and to serve as the headquarters of the Rugby Football Union of Kenya (RFUK). Coincidentally, the RFUEA ground has another parallel with Twickenham Stadium in the United Kingdom in that it also serves as the home ground for the Kenya Harlequin Football Club, just as their sister club the London Harlequins once played at Twickenham.〔http://www.union.quins.co.uk/club/history.php〕〔http://www.20thcenturylondon.org.uk/server.php?show=conObject.8479&search_word=harlequins&pp=10¤t_browser_object=9〕 Many internationally renowned teams have played here including the British Lions (1955 & 1962), the Barbarians (1958), the Springboks(1961) and (1964). The 2009 IRB Junior World Rugby Trophy took place on this site (with some games also being played on the neighbouring Impala RFC ground). As the site for one of the largest and most prestigious annual sevens tournaments in Africa, the Safari Sevens, the RFUEA ground has hosted matches between such diverse teams as Samoa, Emerging Springboks, Zimbabwe, British Army, Public School Wanderers, Bristol University and Université de Grenoble. At an altitude of above sea-level, it is higher than three of the four vaunted stadia of South Africa's highveld; Loftus Versfeld Stadium Pretoria at , the Free State Stadium Bloemfontein and Royal Bafokeng Stadium Rustenburg . Only Ellis Park in Johannesburg at is higher.〔http://www.stadiumdb.com〕 ==Planning== In the early days of rugby in East Africa, when major games were to be staged and larger than normal crowds were expected, Parklands Sports Club (the then home of Nondescripts RFC) served as the venue. But by 1949 attendances for these sorts of events had swelled and other grounds had to be rented by the Union to facilitate them. The African Stadium (now Nairobi City Stadium) was most frequently used, though Mitchell Park Stadium (now Jamhuri Park Stadium) was the venue for the match against the Combined (Oxford and Cambridge) Universities touring team of 1951. It had been apparent to the RFUEA, almost from the outset, that renting facilities was not ideal. In the long term this solution would cost more money and provide fewer options than would ownership of a dedicated facility. Indeed, the idea that East African rugby should have its own ground and headquarters was first put forward in 1930 and these early plans even went as far as finding and inspecting a piece of land in the Westlands area of Nairobi. This initial scheme never bore fruit, whether this was due to a lack of money, inappropriateness of the site or some other stumbling block is not apparent from the records. By the beginning of the 1950s however, the required motivation, determination, expertise and good fortune were in conjunction and the Union were proved right in their analysis of the financial benefits of a dedicated home ground; the RFUEA had saved enough money that it was able, within ten years of the construction of the stadium, to begin loaning money to member clubs for the upgrading of their own grounds. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「RFUEA Ground」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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