The 1981 South African rugby tour (known in New Zealand as the 1981 Springbok Tour, and in South Africa as the Rebel Tour) polarised opinions and inspired widespread protests across New Zealand. The controversy also extended to the United States, where the South African rugby team continued their tour after departing New Zealand.[1][2]
Apartheid had made South Africa an international pariah, and other countries were strongly discouraged from having sporting contacts with it. Rugby union was (and is) an extremely popular sport in New Zealand, and the South African national team, known as the Springboks, were considered to be New Zealand's most formidable opponents.[3] Therefore, there was a major split in opinion in New Zealand as to whether politics should influence sport in this way and whether the Springboks should be allowed to tour.
Despite the controversy, the New Zealand Rugby Football Union (NZRFU) decided to proceed with the tour. The government of Prime Minister Robert Muldoon was called on to ban it, but decided that commitments under the Gleneagles Agreement did not require the government to prevent the tour, and decided not to interfere due to their public position of "no politics in sport". Major protests ensued, aiming to make clear many New Zealanders' opposition to apartheid and, if possible, to stop the matches taking place. This was successful at two games, but also had the effect of creating a law and order issue: whether a group of protesters could be allowed to prevent a lawful game taking place.
The dispute was similar to that involving Peter Hain in the United Kingdom in the early 1970s, when Hain's Stop the Tour campaign clashed with the more conservative 'Freedom Under Law' movement championed by barrister Francis Bennion. The allegedly excessive police response to the protests also became a focus of controversy. Although the protests were among the most intense in New Zealand's recent history, no deaths or serious injuries resulted.
After the tour, no official sporting contact took place between New Zealand and South Africa until the early 1990s, after apartheid had been abolished. The tour has been said to have led to a decline in the popularity of rugby union in New Zealand, until the 1987 Rugby World Cup.
Background
A 1959 poster advertising a meeting of the Citizens' All Black Tour Association to protest against racially selected All Blacks teams touring South Africa
The Springboks and New Zealand's national rugby team, the All Blacks, have a long tradition of intense and friendly sporting rivalry.[4] From 1948 to 1969, the South African apartheid regime affected team selection for the All Blacks, with selectors passing over Māori players for some All Black tours to South Africa.[5] Opposition to sending race-based teams to South Africa grew throughout the 1950s and 1960s, and prior to the All Blacks' tour of South Africa in 1960, 150,000 New Zealanders – 6.25% of the country's population at that time – signed a petition supporting a policy of "No Maoris, No Tour".[5] Despite this, the tour went ahead, and in 1969, Halt All Racist Tours (HART) was formed.[6]
During the 1970s, public protests and political pressure forced on the NZRFU the choice of either fielding a team not selected by race, or not touring South Africa:[5] after South African rugby authorities continued to select Springbok players by race,[4] the Norman Kirk Labour Government barred the Springboks from touring New Zealand in 1973.[6] In response, the NZRFU protested about the involvement of "politics in sport".
On 28 March 1976, the final game of ex-All Black Fergie McCormick was played at Lancaster Park in Christchurch, to which two Springbok players had been invited. Ten days before the game, protesters had written "WELCOME TO RACIST GAME" in 20-foot high letters on the pitch using weed-killer.[7][8][9]
The All Blacks toured South Africa in 1976 with the blessing of the newly elected New Zealand prime minister, Robert Muldoon.[10] In response, twenty-five African nations boycotted the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal,[11] stating that in their view the All Blacks tour gave tacit support to the apartheid regime in South Africa: the IOC declined to ban New Zealand from the Olympics on the grounds that rugby union was no longer an Olympic sport. The tour attracted several anti-apartheid protests in New Zealand, including one on 28 May 1976 in Cathedral Square, Christchurch which attracted 1000–1500 people and included guerrilla theatre.[12][13] Protesters also attempted to disrupt television coverage of the first test by vandalising the Makara Hill microwave station in Wellington, which was responsible for relaying programming in and out of TV One's Avalon studios.[14]
By the early 1980s, the pressure from other countries and from protest groups in New Zealand such as HART reached a head when the NZRFU proposed a Springbok tour for 1981. This became a topic of political contention due to the international sports boycott. After the Australian Prime Minister, Malcolm Fraser, refused permission for the Springboks' aircraft to refuel in Australia,[16] the Springboks' flights to and from New Zealand went via Los Angeles and Hawaii.[17]
Anti-tour poster from Wellington
Despite pressure for the Muldoon government to cancel the tour, permission was granted for it, and the Springboks arrived in New Zealand on 19 July 1981. Since 1977 Muldoon's government had been a party to the Gleneagles Agreement, in which the countries of the Commonwealth accepted that it was:
the urgent duty of each of their Governments vigorously to combat the evil of apartheid by withholding any form of support for, and by taking every practical step to discourage contact or competition by their nationals with sporting organisations, teams or sportsmen from South Africa or from any other country where sports are organised on the basis of race, colour or ethnic origin.
Despite this, Muldoon also argued that New Zealand was a free and democratic country, and that "politics should stay out of sport." In the years following the Gleneagles Agreement, it seemed that New Zealand government members did not feel bound to the Gleneagles agreement, and disregarded it. However, some historians claim that, "the [Gleneagles] agreement remained vague enough to avoid the New Zealand government from having to use coercive powers such as withdrawing visas and passports."[18] This means Muldoon's government technically was not bound to the agreement to the extent it outwardly appeared to the public. In addition to this, Ben Couch, who was the minister for Māori development at the time, stated, "I believe that the Gleneagles agreement has been forced upon us by people who do not have the same kind of democracy that we have."[19]
Muldoon made some effort to discourage the tour and stated that he could see "nothing but trouble coming from this."[20] "A Springbok tour would dash to the ground all that has been achieved as a result of international acceptance", wrote deputy Prime Minister Brian Talboys to the chairman of the NZRFU in a further attempt to discourage the tour, "[the tour] may affect the harmonious development of the Commonwealth and international sport".[18]
Some rugby supporters echoed the separation of politics and sport,[21][22] while other rugby supporters argued that if the tour were cancelled, there would be no reporting of the widespread criticism of apartheid in New Zealand in the controlled South African media.
Muldoon's critics felt that he allowed the tour in order for his National Party to secure the votes of rural and provincial conservatives in the general election later in the year, which National won.[23] Along with Muldoon's policy of "leaving sporting contacts to sporting bodies", Muldoon also held the opinion that the disruption and division of New Zealand was not caused by the NZRFU, nor the Springboks, but the anti-tour protesters themselves.[24] This argument was vehemently refuted by anti-tour voices, political activist Tom Newnham claimed that the government enabled "the greatest breakdown in law and order [New Zealand] has ever witnessed."[25]
The ensuing public protests polarised New Zealand:[23] while rugby fans filled the football grounds, protest crowds filled the surrounding streets, and on one occasion succeeded in invading the pitch and stopping the game.[26]
Initially the anti-tour movement was committed to non-violent civil disobedience, demonstrations and direct action.[citation needed] As protection for the Springboks, the police created two special riot squads, the Red and Blue Squads.[27][28] These police were, controversially, the first in New Zealand to be issued with visored riot helmets and long batons (more commonly the side-handle baton).[citation needed] Some protesters were intimidated and interpreted this initial police response as overkill and heavy-handed tactics.[citation needed] After early disruptions, police began to require that all spectators assemble in sports grounds at least an hour before kick-off.[citation needed] While the protests were meant to be largely peaceful resistance to the Springbok tour, quite often there were "violent confrontations with rugby supporters and specially trained riot police."[29]
At Gisborne on the day before the match anti-tour activists, including Mereana Pitman, gained access to the pitch with a vehicle and tipped broken glass on the pitch.[30] On 22 July,[31] protesters managed to break through a fence, but quick action by spectators and ground security prevented the game being disrupted. Some protesters were beaten by police. From the very first match of the tour in Gisborne, protester tension levels ran high, and one protester, cartoonist Murray Ball, who was the son of an All Black, recalled that it "was strange for New Zealanders to feel so aggressive towards other New Zealanders" and that he was "scared as hell" when he came up against pro-tour defenders.[30]
At Rugby Park, Hamilton (the site of today's Waikato Stadium), on 25 July,[31] about 350 protesters invaded the pitch after pulling down a fence. The police arrested about 50 of them over a period of an hour, but were concerned that they could not control the rugby crowd, who were throwing bottles and other objects at the protesters.[32] Following reports that a stolen light plane (piloted by Pat McQuarrie)[33] was approaching the stadium, police cancelled the match.[32]
The protesters were ushered from the ground and were advised by protest marshals to remove any anti-tour insignia from their attire, with enraged rugby spectators lashing out at them.[32] Gangs of rugby supporters waited outside Hamilton police station for arrested protesters to be processed and released, and assaulted some protesters making their way into Victoria Street. There are many reports from protesters feeling unsafe during this protest. "It was terrifying, I don’t know how big the crowd was, but they were clearly furious …. The police looked vulnerable as they spread out around the whole ground", recollects one protester.[32]
Wellington: Molesworth Street protest
The aftermath of the Hamilton game, followed by the bloody batoning of marchers in Wellington's Molesworth Street in the following week, in which police batoned bare-headed protesters, led to the radicalisation of the protest movement. There are many instances where the protesters had to fear for their safety, especially considering the violence that began on Molesworth Street, where police are said to have "behaved rather too similarly to South African police", according to Tom Newnham.[34] Former police officer, Ross Muerant, who was pro-tour, speaks of the Molesworth St protest: "The protestors, who so obviously lacked self-control, were that evening privy to a classic display of discipline."[35] This perspective of the police tactics has severe opposition from anti-tour activists, with claims that protesters were "savagely attacked by police", and that "police provoked violence."[29] While Newnham's claims that the violence towards protesters from police was unjustified was likely true in his experience, Muerant maintains that there were protesters who intended to inflict "serious injury or disfigurement" on the police.[35]
The authorities strengthened security at public facilities after protesters disrupted telecommunications by damaging a waveguide on a microwave repeater, disrupting telephone and data services, though TV transmissions continued as they were carried by a separate waveguide on the tower.[38] Army engineers were deployed,[citation needed] and the remaining grounds were surrounded with razor wire and shipping container barricades to decrease the chances of another pitch invasion. At Eden Park, an emergency escape route was constructed from the visitors' changing rooms for use if the stadium was overrun by protesters. Crowds of anti-tour protesters stood outside as the police were overwhelmed but the hundreds of police still managed to prevent the protesters from entering the stadium.[39]
Christchurch
At Lancaster Park, Christchurch, on 15 August,[31] some protesters managed to break through a security cordon and a number invaded the pitch.[citation needed] They were quickly removed and forcibly ejected from the stadium by security staff and spectators.[citation needed] A large demonstration managed to occupy the street adjacent to the ground and confront the riot police.[40] Spectators were kept in the ground until the protesters dispersed.[citation needed]
A low-flying Cessna 172 piloted by Marx Jones and Grant Cole disrupted the final test at Eden Park, Auckland, on 12 September[31] by dropping flour-bombs on the pitch, despite which the game continued.[41] "Patches" of criminal gangs, such as traditional rivals Black Power and the Mongrel Mob, were also evident.[citation needed] (Black Power were Muldoon supporters.[42]) A group of peaceful protestors dressed as clowns were beaten with batons by police.[43] The same day in Warkworth, Dunedin and Timaru protesters stormed the local TV transmitters and shut off coverage of the game.[44][45]
The protest movement
Some of the protests had the dual purpose of linking racial discrimination against Māori in New Zealand to apartheid in South Africa. Some of the protesters, particularly young Māori, felt frustrated by the image of New Zealand as a paradise for racial unity.[22] Many opponents of racism in New Zealand in the early 1980s saw it as useful to use the protests against South Africa as a vehicle for wider social action.[citation needed] However, some Māori supported the tour and attended games.[citation needed]John Minto, the national organizer for HART, thought that the tour "stimulate[d] the whole debate about racism and the place of Māori in our community."[46] Political activist Tom Newnham's opinion echoes that of Minto's, albeit considerably more radical, stating that "we are basically the same as white South Africans, just as racist."[47] Some of those protesting racism in South Africa felt inclined to reflect on the racial divide in their own country, before condemning another – part-Māori rugby spectator Kevin Taylor did not join the protests because he "wanted New Zealand to fix its own issues before New Zealanders started telling other countries how to fix their problems."[48]
Tour of the United States
With the American leg of the tour following directly after the events of New Zealand, further protests and clashes with police were expected.[2] Threats of riots caused city officials in Los Angeles, Chicago, New York City and Rochester to withdraw their previous authorisation for the Springboks to play in their cities.[2]
Midwest
The Springboks' match against the Midwest All Stars team had originally been intended to be played in Chicago. Following the anti-apartheid protests, it was secretly rescheduled to the mid morning of Saturday 19 September at Roosevelt Park in Racine, Wisconsin.[49] The clandestine strategy seemingly worked as around 500 spectators gathered to watch the match. Late in the game, however, a small number of protesters arrived to disrupt proceedings and two were arrested after a brief altercation broke out on the field.[49]
Albany: pipe bomb
The cancelled New York City match against the Eastern All Stars was moved upstate to Albany.[50] The long serving Mayor of Albany, Erastus Corning, maintained that there was a right of peaceful assembly to "publicly espouse an unpopular cause," despite his own stated view that "I abhor everything about apartheid".[49] Governor Hugh Carey argued that the event should be barred as the anti-apartheid demonstrators presented an "imminent danger of riot", but a Federal court ruling allowing the game to be played was upheld in the United States Court of Appeals. A further appeal to Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall was also overruled on the grounds of free speech.[50]
The match went ahead with around a thousand demonstrators (including Pete Seeger) corralled 100 yards away from the field of play, which was surrounded by the police. No violence occurred at the game but a pipe bomb was set off in the early morning outside the headquarters of the Eastern Rugby Union resulting in damage to the building estimated at $50,000.[50] No one was injured.
Glenville
The final match of the tour, against the United States national team, took place in secret at Glenville in upstate New York.[51] The thirty spectators recorded at the match is the lowest ever attendance for an international rugby match.[1]
The Muldoon government was re-elected in the 1981 election losing three seats to leave it with a majority of one.
The NZRFU constitution contained much high-minded wording about promoting the image of rugby and New Zealand, and generally being a benefit to society. In 1985, the NZRFU proposed an All Black tour of South Africa: two lawyers successfully sued it, claiming such a tour would breach its constitution. A High Court injunction by Justice Casey saw the tour cancelled.[53][54]
Afterwards, the All Blacks would not tour South Africa until after the fall of the apartheid regime, with the next official tour in 1992. After the 1985 tour was cancelled, an unofficial tour took place a year later by a team that included 28 out of the 30 All Blacks selected for the 1985 tour, known as the New Zealand Cavaliers, a team that was often advertised in South Africa as the All Blacks and/or depicted with the Silver Fern.
After the All Blacks won the 1987 Rugby World Cup, rugby union was once again the dominant sport – in both spectator and participant numbers – in New Zealand.[55]
In New Zealand culture
Prominent artist Ralph Hotere painted a Black Union Jack series of paintings in protest against the tour.
Music popularly associated with the tour included the punk band RIOT 111, and the songs "Riot Squad" by the Newmatics and "There Is No Depression in New Zealand" by Blam Blam Blam.[58]
In 1999 Glenn Wood's biography Cop Out covered the tour from the perspective of a frontline policeman. ISBN978-0-908704-89-7
David Hill's book The Name of the Game is the story of a schoolboy's personal struggles during the tour. ISBN978-0-908783-63-2
Tom Newnham's book By Batons And Barbed Wire is one of the largest collections of photos and general information of the protest movement during the tour. ISBN978-0-473-00253-4 (hardback). ISBN978-0-473-00112-4 (paperback)
The documentary 1981: A Country at War chronicled the tour from various perspectives.[59]
Te Papa has objects related to the tour including images, helmets[60][61] and an entrance ticket.[62] The exhibition Slice of Heaven: 20th Century Aotearoa has a section about the tour.[63]
Rage, a dramatisation of the tour by Tom Scott, was filmed in mid-2011[64][65] and was broadcast on TV One on 4 September 2011.[66]
The second series of the television show Westside takes place during the events of the tour and portrays the main characters' involvement in several of the major incidents.
Cameron, Don (1981). Barbed Wire Boks. Auckland, New Zealand: Rugby Press Ltd. ISBN978-0-908630-05-9.
Chapple, Geoff (1984). 1981: The Tour. Wellington: A H & A W Reed. ISBN978-0-589-01534-3.
Newnham, Tom (1981). By Batons and Barbed Wire. New Zealand: Real Pictures Ltd. ISBN978-0-473-00112-4.
Richards, Trevor (1999). Dancing on Our Bones: New Zealand, South Africa, Rugby and Racism. Wellington, New Zealand: Bridget Williams Books. ISBN1-877-242-004.
The New Zealand national rugby union team, commonly known as the All Blacks, represents New Zealand in men's international rugby union, which is considered the country's national sport. Famed for their international success, the All Blacks have often been regarded as one of the most successful sports teams in history.
The South Africa national rugby union team, commonly known as the Springboks, is the country's national team governed by the South African Rugby Union. The Springboks play in green and gold jerseys with white shorts, and their emblem is the Springbok, a native antelope and the national animal of South Africa. The team has represented South African Rugby Union in international rugby union since 30 July 1891, when they played their first test match against a British Isles touring team. Currently, the Springboks are the reigning World Champions, having won the World Cup a record four times. South Africa are the only team to have won half of the Rugby World Cups they have participated in, and are also the second nation to win the World Cup consecutively.
The Polynesian Panther Party (PPP) was a revolutionary social justice movement formed to target racial inequalities carried out against indigenous Māori and Pacific Islanders in Auckland, New Zealand. Founded by a group of young Polynesians on 16 June 1971, the Panthers worked to aid in community betterment through activism and protest. Besides peaceful protests, they helped provide education, legal aid, and other social resources, such as ESOL classes and youth community programs. The group was explicitly influenced by the American Black Panther Party, particularly Huey Newton’s policy of black unity through his global call-to-action, as well as his ideology of intercommunalism. The movement galvanised widespread support during the Dawn Raids of the 1970s, and greatly helped contribute to the modern pan-Polynesian ethnic identity in New Zealand called Pasifika.
FMG Stadium Waikato is a major sporting and cultural events venue in Hamilton, New Zealand, with a total capacity of 25,800. Four areas contribute to this capacity: The Brian Perry Stand holding 12,000, the WEL Networks Stand holding 8,000, the Goal Line Terrace holding 800 and the Greenzone can hold up to 5,000 people. The capacity can be extended, however, by temporarily adding 5,000 seats to the Goal Line Terrace area. The stadium, owned by the Hamilton City Council, regularly hosts two rugby union teams:
The following lists events that happened during 1981 in New Zealand.
Halt All Racist Tours (HART) was a protest group set up in New Zealand in 1969 to protest against rugby union tours to and from South Africa. Founding member Trevor Richards served as president for its first 10 years, with fellow founding member John Minto then serving as president until South Africa dismantled apartheid in the early 1990s.
Rugby union has been played in New Zealand since 1870 and is the most popular sport in the country as well as being the de facto national sport. In a 2023 survey, 75% of respondents said they followed the sport.
The 1971 South Africa rugby union tour of Australia was a controversial six-week rugby union tour by the Springboks to Australia. Anti-apartheid protests were held all around the country. The tour is perhaps most infamous for a state of emergency being declared in Queensland. In total, around 700 people were arrested whilst the Springboks were on tour.
Thomas Oliver Newnham was a New Zealand political activist and educationalist. He was involved in several left wing causes: attacking institutional racism in New Zealand, and opposing the 1981 Springbok Tour and apartheid in general.
John Minto is a New Zealand political activist known for his involvement in various left-wing groups and causes, most notably Halt All Racist Tours. A 2005 documentary on New Zealand's Top 100 History Makers listed him as number 89. As of 2011, he is involved with the protest group Global Peace and Justice Auckland and the Unite Union. He also wrote a weekly column for The Press and was formerly editor of the Workers' Charter newspaper.
The Third National Government of New Zealand was the government of New Zealand from 1975 to 1984. It was an economically conservative government that aimed to preserve the Keynesian economic system established by the First Labour government and was also socially conservative. Throughout its three terms it was led by Robert Muldoon, a populist but antagonistic politician who was sometimes described as the National Party's best asset and worst liability.
The Cavaliers was an unofficial New Zealand rugby union team which toured South Africa in 1986. Because of the Apartheid policies of the South African government, the official New Zealand Rugby Union tour scheduled for 1985 was cancelled, and the Cavaliers tour was very controversial in New Zealand.
1949 saw the second full tour of South Africa by a representative New Zealand rugby union team. The All Blacks achieved a record of 13 wins, 7 losses and 4 draws, and they lost the test series 4–0.
John Burns Smith was a New Zealand rugby union player, soldier, sportsman and baker. He was an All Black captain, and despite only playing nine matches is recognised as a great. His 26 appearances for the Second New Zealand Expeditionary Force rugby team, which toured the UK in 1946–47, earned him high praise. He also played for the New Zealand Māori, being of Ngāpuhi descent.
Rugby union is the national sport of New Zealand with the All Blacks as the national team. The All Blacks are made up of many races and cultures, and seven of the fifteen starters in the 2011 Rugby World Cup final were of Polynesian descent. However, although the national team has a long history of success, it also has on occasion been the subject of racial issues. On the international stage there has been controversy in the tours of and by South Africa, the most famous of which was the 1981 tour by South Africa. These tours drew much international criticism as many states were boycotting South Africa due to apartheid. On the domestic stage there have been issues of racism in the Super Rugby competition. There have also been some instances of racism in college rugby and club rugby. Racism is quite a serious human rights issue in New Zealand, which was highlighted in the Universal Periodic Review by the United Nations Human Rights Council.
The 1960 New Zealand rugby union tour of South Africa, was a series of rugby union matches played by the New Zealand national rugby union team in South Africa and Rhodesia.
Rugby union and apartheid had a complex and supportive relationship. From 1948 to 1994, international rugby relations with the country, and also the non-integrated nature of rugby within South Africa drew frequent controversy. South Africa remained a member of the International Rugby Board (IRB) throughout the apartheid era.
Rugby union has a long history in New Zealand. Today, New Zealand holds tier one status with World Rugby.
The History of the South Africa national rugby union team dates back to 1891, when the British Lions first toured South Africa where they played against South African representative sides. The South Africa national rugby union team played few international matches during a period of international sanctions due to apartheid. Since the end of apartheid in 1994, South Africa has once again fully participated in international rugby.
Patu! is a 1983 New Zealand documentary film directed by Merata Mita about the controversial 1981 Springbok tour. It follows the inner workings of the campaign against the tour, and captures scenes of violent conflict between police and protesters. It is a significant work of activist and indigenous filmmaking, and of New Zealand filmmaking in general.
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