Rugby union and apartheid

They have not been able to play in Britain, Ireland, France or Australia since 1974, and their only major tour abroad in the last ten years to New Zealand in 1981, was full of controversy, and mass demonstrations.

There is no doubt that giant steps have been taken to make Rugby totally integrated in South Africa in recent years, and their supporters feel that no sooner have they fulfilled the conditions required of them by world opinion than the goalposts are moved.

At the end of the 1970s, the SARB took over the SARF and SARA, but Abdul Abbas, leader of SARU refused to co-operate with the new board until the game was integrated at club level and certain political laws scrapped.

The controversy caused by this matter meant that the Lions did not go back there until their 1997 tour when the South Africa team was ostensibly mixed.

The squad selected for an International Rugby Board centenary match was the closest thing to an official 1986 British Lions side.

Apartheid forbade multiracial sport, which meant that overseas teams, by virtue of their having players of diverse races, could not play in South Africa.

The apartheid government responded by confiscating the passports of the Board's players so that they were unable to attend international games.

In 1963, Lloyd McDermott, the first Australian aborigine on the Australia team refused to go on a tour of South Africa, and switched to rugby league as a result.

[3]However, some, such as Chris Laidlaw, later a Labour MP in New Zealand, had had enough, and believed that rugby's failure to engage with the issue properly was harming the sport: Times have changed, however.

The cleavage was brought into sharp relief by the tragic failure of rugby to come to grips with the problem of racism in Southern Africa.

South Africa has now been exposed for what it really is, a malignant cancer in the corpus of rugby which has long called for the surgeon's knife.

Bette [Bill McLaren's wife] and I were referred to as 'racist scum' on our way down to Mansfield Park to see the South African Barbarians play in 1979 – a tour party comprising equal numbers of coloureds, blacks and whites.

When the Springboks last toured the UK, I was asked to provide commentary on their match against the Midland Counties (East) at Welford Road, Leicester.

I remember having to walk the gauntlet up a narrow channel lined on each side by policemen holding back the mob.

Constant noise outside the South Africans' hotels to try and prevent them sleeping was another unbelievable ploy that sickened decent people.

In 1986, though a Lions tour was cancelled, South Africans played in all-star matches in Cardiff and in London marking the IRB centenary.

The Soviet Union supposedly turned down its invitation to the 1987 Rugby World Cup, because of its distaste for the apartheid regime of South Africa.

[11] Chris Thau says that France approached the USSR before 1987 on the issue, and that the Soviets said that they would be happy to participate if South Africa was not invited.

[13]The Soviets leaned on other nations heavily: Over the years, Ferasse has resisted Eastern Bloc pressure to break with South Africa.

At one point Moscow threatened to set up a rival Federation, but the Rumanians, with whom the French have long had good relationships, stood by France.

Once again Ferasse held firm and the Russians went to France, where they were beaten 29-7[14]In September 1981, South Africa was due to play the Mid-West in Chicago.

The Springboks won both, by 20–19 at Newlands Stadium in Cape Town and the second test 22–16 on 2 September at Ellis Park in Johannesburg .

[16] The game at Hamilton in the first week of the tour saw 200 protestors rip down a chain fence, sprinkle tacks all over the pitch and then staged a sit-in on the halfway line.

The tension generated by the closeness and importance of the game, combined with the efforts of the protestors inside, outside and above the ground, made for an exhilarating and yet terrifying afternoon.

The NZRFU constitution contained much high-minded wording about promoting the image of rugby and New Zealand, and generally being a benefit to society.

A "rebel tour" not government sanctioned went ahead in 1986, but after that sporting ties were cut, and New Zealand made a decision not to convey an authorised rugby team to South Africa until the end of apartheid.

This ostracism started in 1971 when the Argentine government forbade the Pumas to play a match in Rhodesia during the tour in South Africa.

Prior to the World Cup in 1995, the Springboks were only seeded ninth and were not expected to dethrone the incumbent champions Australia, who had not lost a game in the preceding 12 months.

During his acceptance speech, Pienaar made it clear that the team had won the trophy not just for the 60,000 fans at Ellis Park, but also for all 43,000,000 South Africans.

[23] The result was the 2009 film Invictus,[24] directed by Clint Eastwood and starring Freeman as Nelson Mandela and Matt Damon as Pienaar.