1981 'Flour-bomb test' ends Springbok tour

The third and deciding test at Eden Park, Auckland, is perhaps best remembered for the flares and flour bombs dropped onto the pitch from a light plane. Outside the ground, violence erupted on an unprecedented scale.

All Black manager Peter Burke described this as ‘a magnificent game’ in which the All Blacks had a ‘job to do for New Zealand rugby and the rugby-loving people of New Zealand’. As was typical of this tour, though, the game itself was overshadowed by events off the field – and in the air above Eden Park.

Outside the ground ‘all hell broke loose’. Fighting erupted in the streets surrounding the park and police were pelted with rocks and missiles. Some commentators argued that hard-core protesters had been joined by opportunists who just wanted to fight with police.

Security around the ground was the tightest of the tour. But Marx Jones and Grant Cole took their anti-tour protest to new heights in their hired Cessna aircraft. They buzzed Eden Park, dropping flares and flour bombs in a bid to halt the game. In surreal conditions that befitted the nature of the tour, the game continued. All Black prop Gary Knight was felled by a flour bomb, prompting the South African captain to ask ‘whether New Zealand had an air force or not’?

In the sideshow that day, the All Blacks won 25–22 thanks to an injury-time penalty goal by Allan Hewson.

Image: still from film of the third test.