The Springbok tour
- When
- 22 July 1981 – 12 September 1981
- Where
- Rugby Park, Hamilton · Kirikiriroa
- Reach
- Nationwide
Fifty-six days that split the country. Protesters occupied the pitch at Hamilton and stopped the game; by the final test, police in riot gear fought crowds outside Eden Park.
More than 150,000 people took part in protests in 28 centres, and around 1,500 were charged. Families stopped speaking to each other. The government refused to intervene in what it called a sporting matter, and deployed the largest police operation in the country’s peacetime history, including the baton squads known as Red and Blue. A Cessna dropped flour bombs on Eden Park during the last test. The tour ended sporting contact with apartheid South Africa and forced a national argument about racism that did not stop at the border.
Regions affected
Sources
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