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Springbok Rugby Tour 1981 | Many Answers

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In 1981 the South African rugby team, the Springboks, came to tour New Zealand. They had toured before, but the South African apartheid system was causing increasing public outcry in New Zealand. Things came to a head in 1981, with New Zealanders fiercely divided over whether the Springbok tour should go ahead.

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Museums Wellington - Remembering the 81′ Springbok Tour

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Museums Wellington - Remembering the 81′ Springbok Tour

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During the winter of 1981, violent clashes between rugby supporters, protesters and the police erupted all over Aotearoa in one of our country's most tumultuous periods. The Springbok rugby tour brought us to the brink of civil war, as many protested the racial segregation of Apartheid South Africa and made links to racism at home.

On the 29th of July, 1981, protesters opposing the Springbok Tour were met by baton-wielding police trying to stop them marching up Molesworth St to the home of South Africa's Consul to New Zealand.

This was the first time police had used batons against protestors, and the violence horrified many New Zealanders. Former Prime Minister Norman Kirk's prediction eight years earlier that a tour would result in the 'greatest eruption of violence this country has ever known' seemed to ring true.

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During the winter of 1981, violent clashes between rugby supporters, protesters and the police erupted all over Aotearoa in one of our country's most tumultuous periods. The Springbok rugby tour brought us to the brink of civil war, as many protested the racial segregation of Apartheid South Africa and made links to racism at home.

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Otago Daily Times - When it’s more than just a game 

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Otago Daily Times - When it’s more than just a game 

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The years roll by, like floats in a parade.

Some years resonate for centuries because of the events that shaped them. Think about the significance of 1914, 1929, 1939, 1945 and 1967. And, especially for many New Zealanders, how about 1981?

Forty years ago, the South African rugby team came to New Zealand following an ill-advised invitation from then National prime minister Robert Muldoon.

It happened to be an election year and Mr Muldoon was egregiously punting on support from the heartland for the Springbok tour that winter to help out at the ballot box a few months later.

However, it came at a time of rapidly rising disgust and opposition to South Africa's abhorrent system of apartheid, and international condemnation and boycotts of New Zealand because of our continuing sporting links with that nation.

As a result, like other years in that list above, 1981 became something akin to a war. Huge rifts opened up between friends and families, workplaces and communities, and acts of violence many thought not possible in this small nation shocked and angered us.

The Red Squad, the Blue Squad, the brutal use of long batons and truncheons, protesters in the vanguard wearing motorcycle helmets - these words and images became inured in our consciousness that winter and, for many of those on either side of the front lines, will still be fuelling nightmares today.

There were good people on both sides. And bad too, whether pro or anti the tour, among the riot squad or within the body of the protest. One wonders how many might now think back and shudder, or lose sleep, over how aggressively they attacked ''the enemy'', how they might have carried out their duties and beliefs with excessive force - and drawn blood, and broken the limbs, and shattered the innocence of their fellow Kiwis.

As many have said since, it was a miracle nobody was killed.

It was a questionable decision, highly questionable, to allow the tour to go ahead. Little heed was taken by Mr Muldoon of the words of predecessor Norman Kirk, who in April 1973 cancelled a South African tour, following his conscience and police advice that if the tour proceeded it would lead to ''the greatest eruption of violence this country has ever known''.

Mr Muldoon only had to wait another eight years for that.

Who can forget the surreal sight of All Blacks prop Gary Knight being hit by a flour bomb jettisoned from a light plane making bombing runs on Eden Park in the final test match? Or the frenzied, frightening riots taking place outside the ground that day and on many other match days.

New Zealand's love affair with rugby runs really deep, but is a game worth all that?

This past week we have seen two more questionable rugby decisions - giving the Australian team an exemption to come here quarantine-free for the Bledisloe Cup match and New Zealand Rugby's decision to align itself with the wrong side of history and choose a large global petrochemical company, INEOS, as its chief sponsor.

The first was a political decision, Acting Covid-19 Minister Ayesha Verrall admitted to RNZ. There are wildly varying estimates of how much money it might generate for the economy. But businesses would give their eye teeth to receive such treatment.

The INEOS sponsorship is an appalling look for a country which should be doing more to minimise its emissions and has led to the coining of a new name for the New Zealand team, the Oil Blacks.

Forty years on from the tour, rugby still seems able to operate under its own set of rules in a way others can only dream of.

It would be nice to think, four decades on, things have changed. But have they?

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The years roll by, like floats in a parade. Some years resonate for centuries because of the events that shaped them. Think about the significance of 1914, 1929, 1939, 1945 and 1967. And, especially for many New Zealanders, how about 1981?

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I went from being revered to being reviled during 1981 Springbok Tour, says police Red Squad's Ross Meurant

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I went from being revered to being reviled during 1981 Springbok Tour, says police Red Squad's Ross Meurant

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New article : July 12th 2021

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OPINION: The 1981 Springbok Tour was to have a major impact on my life. At first it seemed the tour handed me a golden chalice. But, as time passed by, I found that chalice to be filled with poison.

From famous to infamous. From revered to reviled. The vicissitudes of life.

The tour produced a consistent level of extreme street violence, not seen since the Land Wars, nor seen since.

The country was divided down the middle - for or against the tour. Prime Minister Rob Muldoon had a political motive for permitting the tour to proceed. The general election returned National to the Treasury benches - with a majority of one. The police were the meat in the sandwich.

I was assigned as second in command of the Red Escort Group. In that capacity I was to play a major role in the street tactics, which we developed, and invariably as commander of the front-line squad of the group.

READ MORE:
* 1981 Springbok tour 40 years on: 'We were moved to take to the streets to express our dismay and disapproval'
* 1981 Springbok tour 40 years on: '1981 was the battle for the soul of New Zealand'
* Inside the 1981 Springbok tour
* '81 Springbok protests galvanises a nation divided - 150 Years of News

The 'defeat' of police by the protesters at Hamilton's Rugby Park did have an effect on most police and on me. Whereas until that day I didn't give a damn, that event galvanised me to demand an opportunity to restore one's pride in an outfit (the police) in which at that stage of my career I still had pride.

And so, when Commissioner Bob Walton said to the nation after the event: "If I had had the entire police force at the ground I could not have done more," I knew he was talking a crock of crap.

Muldoon was out of the country at the time, but a few days later when Red Squad was in New Plymouth waiting for the tour to be called off, I was summoned from the mess (dining hall) to take a call from Muldoon. He asked me to repeat what I had 24 hours earlier told Justice Minister Jim McLay (at the time I was a branch treasurer in Jim's Birkenhead electorate.)

Six years later, sharing a whiskey with Sir Rob and Winston Peters in Parliament, where I had arrived as MP for Hobson, Sir Rob reflected on that conversation.

He said words to the effect of: "When you told me that Red Squad could have stopped the protester break-in at Hamilton's Rugby Park, had you been let out of the cage the squad was confined to until too late; and that together with Blue Squad, the police could stop any future park invasions, that was critical to my decision to continue with the tour."

Red and Blue Groups could not have achieved as they did, had it not been for the supporting police units. But unquestionably, the training, evolving tactics and commitment of red and blue groups, paved the way to victory for the police.

Rintoul St in Wellington and Onslow Rd in Auckland were two of the most violent scenes Red Squad encountered. Blue Squad had a similar scene of violence outside Lancaster Park in Christchurch.

To this day, I remain proud of what Red Group achieved.

But, as time passed, the group became the face of police brutality. The clowns affair (where protesters dressed as clowns were beaten) and the photograph of a section of my squad in Onslow Rd, to this day contribute to latent lingering hostility.

As I gained profile from authoring the bestselling book The Red Squad Story, and later as an MP, it was I who copped the vilification and odium heaped upon Red Squad. The poison in the chalice of gold.

Ross Meurant resigned from the police at inspector rank in 1987 to enter parliament as a National MP. Today he is Honorary Consul for Morocco and trustee and CEO of commercial assets owned by absentee Russian investors.

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I went from being revered to being reviled during 1981 Springbok Tour, says police Red Squad's Ross Meurant

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OPINION: The 1981 Springbok Tour was to have a major impact on my life. At first it seemed the tour handed me a golden chalice. But, as time passed by, I found that chalice to be filled with poison. From famous to infamous. From revered to reviled. The vicissitudes of life.

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Ron Don, chairman of the Auckland Rugby Football Union in 1981

A tour supporter looks back

'I'm Ron Don, and in 1981 I was chairman of the Auckland Rugby Union, and I was on the council of the New Zealand Rugby Union. Needless to say, I was very pro-tour. I don't regret anything that was said or done in 1981.

'After the tour, the anti-tour groups were always referred to by the media as peaceful protestors. Now these same protestors did tremendous damage to golf clubs, bowling clubs and even fired a shotgun into my home.

'But we won. We beat the protestors; we beat the media, and most important of all we beat the Springboks.'

How to cite this page

'Film: Ron Don - 1981 Springbok tour', URL: https://nzhistory.govt.nz/media/video/ron-don-1981-springbok-tour, (Ministry for Culture and Heritage), updated 4-Feb-2020

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'I'm Ron Don, and in 1981 I was chairman of the Auckland Rugby Union, and I was on the council of the New Zealand Rugby Union. Needless to say, I was very pro-tour. I don't regret anything that was said or done in 1981.

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Documentary:          1981: A Country at War - 2001.  

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Documentary:          1981: A Country at War - 2001.  

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A TVNZ Documentary from 2001, looking back at the events of 20 years previous. Includes perspectives of police, protesters, politicians, rugby fans and the NZRU.

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A TVNZ Documentary from 2001, looking back at the events of 20 years previous. Includes perspectives of police, protestors, politicians, rugby fans and the NZRU.

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Springbok tour protesters, 1981 - Government and sport - Te Ara Encyclopedia of New Zealand

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Next: Page 2. All Blacks versus Springboks

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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.

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New Zealand’s Audiovisual Archive

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Thirty-five years ago this week we were in the middle of New Zealand's "winter of discontent," with the country embroiled in the 1981 Springbok Tour. Protests took place all over the country, with many families divided between rugby fans - who thought sports should not be concerned with political issues - and those who felt New Zealand should be joining the international boycott and cutting all sporting ties with apartheid-era South Africa.

Radio New Zealand news and sports reporters were in the thick of it, as the conflict between police, protestors and rugby fans became more and more heated. You can hear me talking to RNZ's Jesse Mulligan about some of the archived sound recordings from those turbulent times held in the radio collection at Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision, or read more and find links to the recordings below.

In the tour opener at Gisborne, anti-tour protesters had managed to break through a perimeter fence but were prevented from occupying the field and disrupting the match. Three days later, at Rugby Park in Hamilton on July 25, Waikato prepared to take on the Springboks. Over 500 police officers were present in the city but the protest planners had also been busy, buying more than 200 tickets for the game to ensure that protesters could make their presence known. As it was a Saturday, more people were able to protest, and around 5,000 gathered to march on Rugby Park. Shortly before kick-off, RNZ's sports commentators, the late Graeme Moody and John Howson found themselves covering the action as protestors broke down the fence and made their way onto the field.

http://www.ngataonga.org.nz/blog/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/cut-1-protest.mp3
Report on Protests at Rugby Park (25 July 1981)
Hear the full recording of the Waikato game protest and cancellation here.

After the pitch invasion police had to control a potentially very volatile situation - thousands of frustrated rugby fans, surrounding a group of committed protestors in the middle of the field. As the game was cancelled, the fury of the thwarted rugby fans could be felt through the airwaves:

http://www.ngataonga.org.nz/blog/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/cut-2-hamilton.mp3

Report on Protests at Rugby Park (25 July 1981)

The Waikato game was the first being televised live back to South Africa, so viewers there saw the New Zealand opposition to the tour and apartheid. And the protests kept coming - soon taking place on a daily basis and not just at games.

in Wellington, 2,000 anti-tour protesters were confronted by police who used batons to stop them marching up Molesworth St to the home of South Africa's ambassador in Wadestown. This was the first use of batons against protestors and the violence horrified many people. There were no mobile phones in 1981, so reporters couldn't provide live coverage from the middle of a march, but RNZ reporters Lindy Fleming and James Weir were there and reported back in the studio on what they saw and captured with their tape recorders.

http://www.ngataonga.org.nz/blog/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/Cut-3-molesworth.mp3
Report on Wellington Protests (29 July 1981)
You can listen to the Molesworth Street action and other 1981 anti-Tour protests from around the country, in a compilation of radio coverage here.

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Thirty-five years ago this week we were in the middle of New Zealand's "winter of discontent," with the country embroiled in the 1981 Springbok Tour. Protests took place all over the country, with many families divided between rugby fans - who thought sports should not be concerned with political issues - and those who felt New Zealand should be joining the international boycott and cutting all sporting ties with apartheid-era South Africa.