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.
The All Blacks accepted an invitation to tour South Africa in 1976, a time when world attention was firmly fixed on the republic because of the Soweto riots.
The tour supporters were determined that the first Springbok visit to New Zealand since 1965 would not be spoiled. The anti-tour movement was equally determined to show its opposition to it.
In Hamilton the protestors occupying the pitch had chanted 'The whole world is watching'. The same applied to New Zealand as a nation. Some believed the tour was an opportunity to address racism in New Zealand and show solidarity with the oppressed black majority in South Africa.
The Citizens' All Black Tour Association, of which Ngai Tahu leader Frank Winter was a prominent member, campaigned to stop the selection of a racially based All Black touring team with the slogan 'No Maoris – No Tour'.
The parties to the Gleneagles Agreement agreed to discourage and not to support contact or competition with sporting organisations, teams or sportsmen from South Africa or any other country where sports were organised on the basis of race, colour or ethnic origin.
A 1981 All Black, Doug Rollerson, and flour-bomb pilot Marx Jones provide opposing views on the tour in this 2006 interview. Both are adamant that they were right in the stance they took at the time.
The Poverty Bay team travelled to the game in the back of a meat truck to avoid detection by protestors. This set the pattern for the remainder of the tour, with each side trying to outsmart the opposition on game day.
