Stopping the 1973 Tour - The 1981 Springbok Tour

• 1981 Springbok Tour
• All Blacks vs Springboks
• Politics and sport
• 1973 Springbok Tour
• Gleneagles agreement
• Battle lines are drawn
• Tour diary
• Impact of the Tour
• Image and Media Gallery
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Stopping the 1973 tour

Keeping sport and politics separate was becoming increasingly difficult. In July 1969 HART (Halt All Racist Tours) was founded by Auckland University students with the specific aim of opposing sporting contact with South Africa. With a Springbok tour to New Zealand proposed for 1973, the issue was to become increasingly politicised.

In the run up to the 1972 election, Norman Kirk, the Labour opposition leader, promised not to interfere with the tour. After winning the election, he attempted – unsuccessfully – to persuade the NZRFU to withdraw its invitation to the Springboks. In April 1973, faced with what he predicted would be the 'greatest eruption of violence this country has ever known', Kirk announced his government's decision to cancel the tour.

The government also considered that as Christchurch was hosting the 1974 Commonwealth Games a boycott by black African nations seemed likely should the tour proceed. The decision was met with howls of protest from the NZRFU and those referred to by activist Tim Shadbolt as 'KEEPOOS' (Keep Politics out of Sport).

During the 1975 election campaign opposition leader Robert Muldoon stated that 'a National Government would welcome a Springbok team to New Zealand, even if there were threats of violence and civil strife.' His prediction that this would be 'one issue on which people will change their vote' appeared vindicated when National won the election.

Next page: Gleneagles agreement