The third and deciding rugby test at Eden Park, Auckland, is best remembered for the flares and flour bombs dropped onto the playing field. Outside the ground, violence erupted on an unprecedented scale.
Springboks
Events In History
29 July 1981
Up to 2000 anti-Springbok tour protesters were confronted by police who used batons to stop them marching up Molesworth St to the home of South Africa's Consul to New Zealand
25 July 1981
Anti-tour demonstrators invaded Hamilton’s Rugby Park, forcing the abandonment of the Springboks–Waikato match.
10 April 1973
Following police warnings of civil strife, Prime Minister Norman Kirk informed the New Zealand Rugby Football Union that the government saw ‘no alternative’ to a 'postponement' of the planned tour by the South African Springboks.
7 September 1921
A South African journalist was outraged when white spectators supported the New Zealand Māori rugby team playing the touring Springboks at Napier.
Articles
1981 Springbok tour
For 56 days in July, August and September 1981, New Zealanders were divided against each other in the largest civil disturbance seen since the 1951 waterfront dispute. The cause of this was the visit of the South African rugby team – the Springboks. Read the full article
Page 1 - The 1981 Springbok rugby tour
For 56 days in July, August and September 1981, New Zealanders were divided against each other in the largest civil disturbance seen since the 1951 waterfront dispute. The cause
Page 2 - All Blacks versus Springboks
Since rugby went professional in 1995 countries like Australia, England and France have challenged New Zealand and South Africa's claims to be the two powerhouses of world
Page 3 - Politics and sport
South Africa's apartheid policies and attitudes created obvious problems for New Zealand rugby, given the prominence of Māori in the
Page 4 - Stopping the 1973 tour
Keeping sport and politics separate was becoming increasingly difficult. In July 1969 HART (Halt All Racist Tours) was founded by University of Auckland students with the specific
Page 5 - Gleneagles Agreement
The All Blacks accepted an invitation to tour South Africa in 1976, when world attention was fixed on the republic because of the Soweto
Page 6 - Battle lines are drawn
Tour supporters were determined that the first Springbok visit to New Zealand since 1965 would not be spoiled. The anti-tour movement was equally determined to show its opposition
Page 7 - Tour diary
Select itinerary of the 1981 tour by the Springbok rugby
Page 8 - Impact
In Hamilton the protesters occupying the pitch had chanted 'The whole world is watching'. The same applied to New Zealand as a nation. Some believed the tour was an opportunity to
Page 9 - Further information
Find out more about the 1981 Springbok
Biographies
In 1972 Norman Kirk broke National’s 12-year-long grip on the Treasury benches and became Labour’s first New Zealand-born PM.
Rob Muldoon was one of our most polarising PMs, the voice of ‘the ordinary bloke’ to supporters and a dictatorial bully to critics.
Main image: No depression in New Zealand
The year 1981 was a time of great economic anxiety and social and political unease in New Zealand. This was captured by the Auckland band Blam Blam Blam, which released ‘There is no depression in New Zealand’.
