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Murrayfield Stadium (usually just known as Murrayfield) is a sports stadium located in the west end of Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland. Its all-seater capacity was recently reduced from 67,800 to 67,130 to incorporate the largest permanent 'big screen' in the country though it still remains the largest stadium in Scotland and one of the largest in the United Kingdom overall. The stadium is the home of the Scottish Rugby Union (SRU), and is primarily used as a venue for rugby union and hosts most of Scotland's home test matches, as well as the Edinburgh Sevens, the Scottish Hydro Electric Cup final, as well as Magners League and Heineken Cup matches. The stadium is considered an icon of Scottish rugby. Although mainly a rugby union stadium, Murrayfield has in the past hosted American football, rugby league and association football matches. In addition, it has in the past been a venue for music concerts, the most notable of these being the Edinburgh 50,000 - The Final Push concert as part of Live 8. It once held the record for the largest ever attendance for a rugby union match, with 104,000 watching Scotland play Wales in 1975. Murrayfield is located in the west-end of Edinburgh, just off Corstorphine Road, right next door to the Murrayfield Ice Rink, and close to the Edinburgh Zoo. It is named after the area of Edinburgh it is located in, Murrayfield. It has good public transport links, being particularly well-served by bus links along the Corstorphine Road. Despite the line running adjacent to the stadium, its nearest railway station is Haymarket, which is a 1 mile walk from the stadium. The SFU bought some land and built the first Murrayfield which was opened on 21 March 1925. Previously internationals had been played at Inverleith. The first visitors were England, whom Scotland beat to win their first Five Nations Championship Grand Slam. During the Second World War the ground at Murrayfield was offered to the nation and was taken over by the Royal Army Service Corps and used as a supply depot. During the war years the armed forces sports authorities managed to arrange two Scotland v. England services internationals each year, on a home-and-away basis. Scotland's home matches were played at Inverleith for the first two years with a return to Murrayfield in 1944 after that ground's derequisition. In 1994 Murrayfield completed a 50 million pound renovation where floodlights were installed for the first time in its history. Currently Murrayfield is used for most Scottish international rugby union matches, with all Scotland's Six Nations home games being played here. The stadium also hosts Edinburgh Rugby, one of Scotland's two professional sides in the Magners League that also features teams from Ireland and Wales. (For Magners League matches, only the lower tier of the West Stand is typically used.) Since 2007, Murrayfield has hosted the Edinburgh 7s, the final event in the annual IRB Sevens World Series in rugby sevens. Murrayfield also hosted select matches from the 2007 Rugby World Cup. The stadium also hosted the Heineken Cup Final in 2005, when Toulouse beat Stade Français by 18 points to 12, and again in 2009, with Leinster defeating Leicester by 19 points to 16. Murrayfield also hosts football matches. The first football match played on Murrayfield was played between the local Scottish Premier League side Heart of Midlothian F.C. (Hearts) and the Portuguese Sporting Braga in September 2004. In 2006, Hearts selected Murrayfield as their home venue for their European campaign in the 2006/2007 season, as Tynecastle did not meet the UEFA criteria for hosting European football matches. This has seen clubs such as Ferencvaros, Schalke 04 and AEK Athens playing at Murrayfield. Additionally, Hearts hosted a preseason friendly on July 28, 2007 against FC Barcelona in front of a crowd of nearly 58,000. |