1981 South Africa rugby union tour of New Zealand and the United States
The controversy also extended to the United States, where the South African rugby team continued their tour after departing New Zealand.
Major protests ensued, aiming to make clear many New Zealanders' opposition to apartheid and, if possible, to stop the matches taking place.
[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.
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.
[7][8][9] The All Blacks toured South Africa in 1976 with the blessing of the newly elected New Zealand prime minister, Robert Muldoon.
[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.
[15] 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.
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."
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.
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.
[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.
[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.
[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.
[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.
[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.
[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.
[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.
[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".
[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.
