Story: The New Zealanders

Protesters and rugby fans in conflict, 1981

Protestors and rugby fans in conflict, 1981

In 1981 the central importance of rugby to New Zealanders’ identity was challenged by massive protests against the tour of the South African Springboks. Here protesters and rugby fans battle one another outside Auckland’s Eden Park on the day of the last rugby test. In one sense they were fighting over what it meant to be a New Zealander.

Using this item

Alexander Turnbull Library, Evening Post Collection (PAColl-0614)
Reference: EP/1081/2657/9
Photograph by Don Scott

Permission of the Alexander Turnbull Library, National Library of New Zealand, Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa, must be obtained before any re-use of this image.

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How to cite this page:

Jock Phillips, 'The New Zealanders - Ordinary blokes and extraordinary sheilas', Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, http://www.TeAra.govt.nz/en/photograph/1985/protesters-and-rugby-fans-in-conflict-1981 (accessed 29 March 2024)

Story by Jock Phillips, published 8 Feb 2005, updated 1 May 2015