Football as Social Critique: Protest Movements, Rugby and History in Aotearoa/New Zealand

During the 1970s and 1980s New Zealand was the site of an array of social and political struggles over issues centred on colonisation, gender politics, economic and social policies, international relations and state power. The single biggest protest movement centred on the question of sporting contact with South Africa and found full force during the 1981 Springbok rugby tour. This paper considers the range of protest movements and campaigns during this period and examines the reasons behind the priority given to the campaign against apartheid sport. In doing so it will examine the significance of rugby in New Zealand and its relations with South Africa, and show how 1981 provided a focal point for a wider set of social frustrations associated with broader social and political change