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Story: Waikato region

The game that never was

Video file

On 25 July 1981 a rugby game between the Waikato team and the touring South African Springboks was cancelled after anti-apartheid protesters stormed onto the ground at Rugby Park in Hamilton. Violence erupted after the game was called off, as this film footage shows.

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TVNZ Television New Zealand

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How to cite this page

Nancy Swarbrick, Waikato region – Politics and social change, Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/en/video/27165/the-game-that-never-was (accessed 23 June 2026).

Story by Nancy Swarbrick, published 26 May 2010, updated 1 July 2015.

Comments

Riki Wilson
03 June 2020
I was on that field with my brother and father. I was 16 and a student at Wesley College attending with my brother...