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Ticket to South Africa versus Waikato, Rugby Park, Hamilton

In the winter of 1981, a tour of New Zealand by an entirely white South African ‘Springbok’ rugby squad opened up one of the most bitter rifts in recent national history.
The visit, hosted by the New Zealand Rugby Football Union, broke international cultural sanctions imposed against a racist South African regime. The international community condemned New Zealand for the sporting exchange.
The six-week-long 1981 Springbok tour continues to loom large in the national memory for the battles it provoked, not just on rugby pitches but within families, schools, and workplaces.
Many Hamiltonians of a certain age can remember either attending the game, or the tumult that engulfed the city for more than 48 hours following the event.
Due to a printing error, tickets for this game incorrectly said "1980" instead of 1981.

Noo hea
Where

Hamilton, New Zealand

Ua
When

July 1981

Materials

Paper

Dive into the Details

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Detail 1

The Springbok’s game against Waikato at Rugby Park in Kirikiriroa Hamilton on July 25 attracted some of the most intense clashes of the tour. Following escalating confrontations between anti and pro-tour protestors and the police, reports that a plane stolen from Taupoo was headed toward the match finally convinced authorities to abandon the game.

Detail 2

News of the cancellation made international headlines and reached imprisoned anti-apartheid leader Nelson Mandela.

Desmond Tutu, a prominent colleague in the struggle for equal rights, reported Mandela saying that upon hearing about this stand against apartheid “it was as if the sun had come out”.

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