The flour-bomb Test recalled

AS THE All Blacks and Springboks prepare to meet in Christchurch on Saturday, this week also marks the 35th anniversary of the most bizarre clash between the old rivals, the so-called flour-bomb Test of 1981.

Anti-apartheid protesters in a light aircraft buzzed Auckland’s Eden Park during the match, dropping flour-filled paper bags on players and spectators.

The teams agreed to proceed with the match, despite All Blacks prop Gary Knight being felled by one of the projectiles and violent clashes between police and demonstrators outside the ground.

“We caught them completely off-guard,” John Minto, one of the protest organisers, said of the aerial escapade.

“The police knew we were going to turn out in numbers at Eden Park and had turned the streets around the ground into a fortress, with barbed wire and barricades.

“But when the plane came over, there was nothing they could do. On the ground, we were elated, it was so dramatic and inspiring.”

The context for the stunt was the most bitterly divisive rugby tour in New Zealand’s history, featuring a Springbok team that many viewed as the standard-bearer for SA’s racist apartheid regime.

The conservative government and the New Zealand Rugby Football Union were determined the tour would proceed, arguing politics and sport should not mix.

It was a stance many Kiwis disagreed with passionately.

Even All Blacks captain Graham Mourie made himself unavailable for selection, later saying “you’ve got to be able to look at yourself in the mirror”.

For the Eden Park Test on September 12, more than 2,100 police — 40% of the national force — were deployed in Auckland.

It was the final match of the tour and Minto said activists hoped to force its cancellation. They failed, and New Zealand prevailed 25-22 to take the Test series 2-1.

“We lost the battle, in that the game went ahead,” Minto said.

“But we won the war because the Springboks didn’t play another major rugby nation until 1992 after apartheid was abandoned.”

The veteran protester proudly recalls how Nelson Mandela said the New Zealand demonstrations provided a boost to the morale of his movement.

“He said when they found out about it, all the prisoners of Robben Island grabbed the bars of their cell doors and they rattled them right around the prison. He said it was like the sun came out.”