In 1981, New Zealand found itself torn apart by the contentious visit of the South African Springboks rugby team.
Demonstrators storm into Rugby Park at Hamilton Springbok tour. July 25, 1981. .final against the Springboks on Saturday, but there was a time when their rugby team’s links to apartheid-era South Africa bitterly divided New Zealanders.The rugby-mad host nation was split by New Zealand rugby’s insistence on maintaining ties with South Africa’s apartheid regime while other countries supported a sporting boycott.The flashpoint came soon after the Springboks arrived.
“I was pretty happy that they toured. I had no problems playing, but a couple of my mates did,” Wilson said, referring to then All Blacks’ captain Graham Mourie and star centre Bruce Robertson, who both declined to play the South Africans on political grounds. “The country was certainly the most divided that I’ve ever seen with strong emotions on both sides and a lot of violence.”“I got injured many times during the tour, but ended up in hospital twice in Hamilton that night for stitches,” he said, having been repeatedly struck by objects thrown from furious rugby fans.
In the wake of the abandoned game in Hamilton, New Zealand police responded with increasingly rough tactics, staging baton charges on crowds of demonstrators outside parliament in Wellington in what became known as “The Battle of Molesworth Street”. At one point, Wilson tackled an opponent, only to discover several fish hooks, thrown onto the pitch by protestors, had stabbed his leg.
The divisions caused by New Zealand rugby’s stance took time to heal and damaged the game’s standing among Kiwis.
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