Few of the players who will wear the New Zealand or South African jerseys in Saturday’s Tri-Nations rugby Test at Hamilton directly remember the last visit by the Springboks to the North Island city.
Most will still have an acquired knowledge of that occasion, 28 years ago, because of the importance it has assumed not only in the rugby, but in the social and political histories of both nations.
On the afternoon of July 25, 1981, the Springboks were scheduled to play Waikato Province at Hamilton’s Rugby Park — now Waikato Stadium, the venue of Saturday’s Test — in the second match of a 16-match New Zealand tour.
The tour had proceeded — in the face of bitter opposition from critics of apartheid — with the approval of the New Zealand Rugby Union and the government of then New Zealand prime minister Robert Muldoon.
Until 1970, New Zealand teams touring South Africa had been prohibited from including players of Maori or Polynesian heritage, in line with South African racial policies.
New Zealand toured South Africa with Maori players in 1970 and returned in 1976, prompting a boycott of that year’s Montreal Olympics by 25 African nations.
In 1973, the Labour government of former prime minister Norman Kirk had prevented a tour to New Zealand by a Springboks side but in 1981 Muldoon’s government opted not to interfere.
New Zealand had signed the Gleneagles Agreement which discouraged sporting contacts with South Africa but Muldoon declined to stop the tour, citing his party’s opposition to politics in sport.
It proved to be polarizing. The division of the nation into pro and anti tour factions struck even at individual families whose members were separated by political views.
Few New Zealanders were immune to the upheaval caused by the tour. Rugby, New Zealand’s national sport, has a deep place in its society, particularly prevalent in rural communities such as the Waikato.
The Springboks arrived in New Zealand on July 19 and were met by well-organized protesters.
At the first tour stop, Gisborne, protesters tried to tear down a perimeter fence surrounding the local rugby ground to invade the pitch. They were unsuccessful but the action foreshadowed events at Hamilton three days later.
Protesters again converged on the ground before the scheduled start of play and succeeded in pulling down a section of wire fencing on the stadium’s perimeter. Immediately, protesters surged through the breach.
It is estimated around 350 protesters made it onto the field, linking arms in a group which faced outward at grandstands and embankments filled with rugby fans.
Peter Lange, who was among the protesters, recalled in a written account “we all eventually congregated in the middle of the field like soap bubbles on water.”
Rugby fans “were now getting very fed up and couldn’t wait for the riot squad or a bulldozer or a baton charge which they knew would happen any minute because the game was due to start and international games never started late.”
To the protesters’ surprise, the police deployed also faced the crowd.
“So here we were ... with our own personal police protection in place, but now more puzzled about how this was all going to end,” Lange said.
“We knew that this strange stalemated scene was being transmitted all around the world, there were cameras everywhere. No politician would want to see us beaten up on international television,” he said.
Lange’s observation was astute.
The match was televised live in South Africa where viewers received graphic notice of international opposition to apartheid.
Police began to arrest protesters one by one, taking away more than 50 in an hour while attempting to calm fans who had become increasingly restive.
News then arrived at the ground that a war veteran, Pat McQuarrie, had taken a light plane and was flying toward the stadium. With no way of knowing McQuarrie’s intentions and amid rumors he might crash the plane into the main grandstand, police Superintendent Bob Walton decided to abandon the game.
Rugby fans, incensed, stepped up their attacks on protesters, bombarding them with missiles, punching and kicking them as they were ushered from the ground.
Days later in Wellington, police baton charged a demonstration, injuring several protesters. That police action sparked more militancy from protesters. For the remainder of the tour, match venues were surrounded by razor wire.
The last match of the tour, the third Test at Auckland, proceeded while protesters fought with police and an aircraft buzzed Eden Park dropping flour bombs on players.
The Springbok team that returns to Hamilton, racially diverse and led by a colored coach, will mirror the transformation of its nation.
The only controversy so far around Saturday’s match was caused by Springboks’ coach Peter de Villiers who described Hamilton as boring, a charge unlikely to have been leveled against the city 28 years ago.
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