Word: springboks
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...Springbok tour placed New Zealand's Prime Minister Robert Muldoon, 59, in a tough political dilemma. If he approved the South Africans' visit, he risked censure abroad as well as violent clashes at home between anti-apartheid groups and rugby diehards. But opposing the tour also carried liabilities: Muldoon and his National Party, currently holding just 48 of the 92 seats in Parliament, face an uphill election battle in November; banning the Springboks might well outrage numerous rugby fans among the voters...
Indeed, Muldoon was swept into office in 1975, two years after the Labor government had blocked a Springbok series. Contemplating the prospect of a new tour, Muldoon called it a "disaster" and implored the football union to withdraw the invitation. But when the union's leaders refused, he meekly gave...
Last Saturday more than 400 New Zealanders broke through a cordon to occupy the rugby field in Hamilton, forcing a Springbok match to be cancelled. As police tried to drag away the protesters, irate spectators jumped the fence and joined the tussle...
Australia was also worried about the Springbok series, partly because it will host a meeting of the Commonwealth heads of government in Melbourne beginning Sept. 30 and fears that the session will be split into black and white factions by the fracas over rugby. The Australian Foreign Affairs Department even refused to grant the South Africans visas, forcing the team to take a lengthy detour via New York City and Los Angeles. Referring to the New Zealand rugby union, Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser said: "I suspect they do not understand the damage this could do to New Zealand...
...simply because he attended a boxing bout held in South Africa as a spectator. The British cricketer expelled from Guyana, Robin Jackman, was so treated because he is married to a South African and spends the whiter in that country. Fearing boycotts, Australia has even refused the South African Springbok rugby team permission to land there on its way to New Zealand this summer...