Not for Kicks

Rugby is also political football

Speaking from the pulpit, Father John McAlpine warned the parishioners of St. Patrick's Cathedral in Auckland that many New Zealanders worshiped "a false idol, a leather ball." The priest was referring to the national passion for rugby.

The occasion was the New Zealand Rugby Football Union's invitation to the South African Springboks, a world class team whose predominantly white composition (just one black) all too clearly reflects its government's views on racial segregation--and inflames controversy far beyond the realm of sport. Demonstrating against South Africa's policy of apartheid, New Zealanders last week staged their worst civil disorders since the Viet Nam War. A crowd of 3,000 tried to storm Parliament, while others occupied bridges, fought with police, and dumped broken glass on playing fields.

The 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 in.

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.

New Zealand's decision to play host to South Africa drew swift fire from a number of its Commonwealth partners, particularly the black African states, such as Nigeria and Zimbabwe. The 50-nation Organization of African Unity demanded that New Zealand be excluded from the 1982 Commonwealth Games in Brisbane, Australia. Nigeria helped persuade the Commonwealth's finance ministers to shift their September meeting from New Zealand to the Bahamas, a move that further vexed the besieged Muldoon. Said he: "My first reaction was to tell them to look for a good taxidermist, but I restrained myself."

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. It is a very great pity indeed."

The South Africans may also cause anxieties for the U.S. The Springboks are scheduled to play three matches in September in Chicago, Albany and New York. American officials are concerned that black African countries, already distrustful of the Reagan Administration's overtures toward South Africa, might launch a campaign to boycott the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles. Indeed, 30 nations passed up the 1976 Olympics because New Zealand, which was competing, had sent its national rugby team to play in South Africa. Looking ahead to a possibly long hot summer in 1984, a U.S. Olympic Committee director declared last week: "It's a very sensitive situation."

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