56 Days of Protest
19th July - The Springbok team and officials were welcomed to New Zealand on the Poho-o-Rawiri marae in Gisborne. It was obvious from the beginning that conservative rural Gisborne was divided over the tour
“We were horrified that the first welcome they (the Springboks) would receive was from a marae, from our people, and from the people we were related to, so it was a matter of great shame to us.” - Mereana Pitman
22nd July - The Springbok played their first game against Poverty Bay in Gisborne. A protest march took an unexpected turn and they marched over the golf course towards the rugby field. Inside the stadium a roar of noise began to grow. When the anti tour protestors meet the pro tour supporters at the game, both sides acted violently towards one another. Protestors such as Mereana Pitman, a key anti-tour protest strategist, snuck into the pitch prior to the game to sprinkle broken glass onto the field.
“The whole world is watching!”
25th July - The Springbok played their second game against Waikato at Rugby Park in Hamilton. Five Thousand Anti-Tour Protestors marched towards the stadium with the intention of breaking through the fences surrounding the park. Three hundred and fifty protestors practically effortlessly peeled the fence from its holdings and made it onto the pitch, battling a few police officers and rugby supporters a few minutes before the players were scheduled to kick-off. When on the field, they united in the centre of the pitch, linking arms and shouting "The whole world is watching!" as police officers formed a perimeter around the concentrated protestors. Over the space of an hour the police officers arrested 50 protestors and struggled to control the rugby supporters as they verbally abused the protestors and threw objects at the Anti-tour demonstrators as they too tried to make it onto the field to protest to the game being put off. They chanted "We want rugby! We want rugby!". When police discovered reports of a hijacked plane heading towards the stadium, flown by talented war veteran and anti-tour protestor Pat McQuarrie, the authorities were forced to reluctantly call the game off as it was suggested that the pilot was planning on flying the plane into the grandstand. This exasperated the rugby fans that had paid to see the Springbok play, many of whom were infuriated enough to expel their anger onto the protestors with direct violence as some anti-tour protestors were tackled to the ground.
“We want rugby! We want rugby!”
29th July - The Springboks defeated Taranaki in New Plymouth. As the rugby focus moved from center to center, as did the protest demonstrations. On Molesworth Street, outside Parliament in Wellington, the Police used batons on anti-tour activists for the first time.
15th August - The Springboks played their first game against the All Blacks in Christchurch. Protest action at the ground and around the country continued to escalate and Pete Carrington, a police officer, described that it was “sheer luck” that no one was killed on this day.
29th August - The Springboks faced the All Blacks again at Athletic Park in Wellington. Again the protest intensified, some describing the scene surrounding the stadium as a battlefield. Seven thousand protestors gathered in the heart of Wellington and they ascended to motorway exits to block access into the city and more specifically, block access to Athletic Park. The police officers created human wedges, in order to allow ticket holders into the park. Many brawls occurred involving protestors, rugby fans or police, resulting in anti-tour protestors gradually being removed. Batons were again used by police to control activists, but this time, it was on pro-tour rugby fans, as well as anti tour protestors.
12th September - Springboks faced the All Blacks for the third and final time at Auckland’s Eden Park. The final test sustained the unrelenting increase in protest action. This time protestors openly fought with police outside the Stadium and a Cessna aircraft dropped flour and smoke bombs onto the pitch.
|
Pete Carrington describes the events which occurred on the day of the first test on the 15th of August.
|