Thirty years on

Tēnā Tātou te iwi. Just recently I was invited on to the Breakfast televison show on TV1 to talk about the 1981 Springbok Tour. It seems hard to believe that thirty years have passed since this controversial tour divided the country so bitterly. I think the media was interested in contrasting how rugby had divided us then but now with the world cup only weeks away rugby was once once a force of unity. Anyway it has been noticeable in the last few weeks how our feature on the tour has regularly featured on our most popular topics list so schools are obviously looking at this tour and its associated issues. It is also featured on our home page for the month. There are a number of activities related to this feature and the tour itself available in the Classroom section of NZHistory. Highlighting this feature at this time is not intended to detract in any way from this year's rugby world cup but does provide an opportunity to examine the place of the sport in our history in a sort of 'warts and all' fashion.

Ngā mihi

Steve