Sport

Poster advertising a demonstration outside the John Player rugby cup final at Twickenham in protest against the Rugby Football Union’s tour of South Africa in May–June 1984. Student activists demonstrated at Heathrow on the day of the team’s departure. The tour went ahead in spite of a long-running campaign against it. The Conservative government expressed its opposition to the tour but took no action to stop it.

Demonstration outside the John Player rugby cup final at Twickenham on 28 April in protest against the Rugby Football Union’s tour of South Africa in May–June 1984. Student activists demonstrated at Heathrow on the day of the team’s departure. The tour went ahead in spite of a long-running campaign against it. The Conservative government expressed its opposition to the tour but took no action to stop it.

Wales AAM ran a long campaign to persuade the Welsh Rugby Union to break off its links with the South African Rugby Board. This pamphlet made the case for a complete break with apartheid sport. The Welsh Rugby Union finally severed its ties with South Africa in1989.

Disabled People Against Apartheid campaigned for South Africa’s exclusion from the Stoke Mandeville International Games, forerunner of the Paralympics. The group was formed in 1981 after sportswoman Maggie Jones was banned from the European Paraplegic Table Tennis Champonships for distributing anti-apartheid leaflets. This leaflet advertises a demonstration against the South African team at the 1985 Games. Later the same year South Africa was suspended from future Games.

Leaflet publicising a demonstration at a game between the British Lions and a ‘rest of the world’ squad in Cardiff on16 April 1986. The world squad included six Springboks sponsored by the whites-only South African Rugby Board. The Welsh Rugby Union had close ties with South Africa. After a long campaign by Wales AAM, it finally severed its ties with the South African Rugby Board in 1989.

Demonstrators at Twickenham protested against the inclusion of Springbok rugby players in one of the teams in the International Rugby Board centenary match on 19 April 1986. Springbok supporters came from South Africa to Twickenham and Cardiff Arms Park for the centenary. In Cardiff, Wales AAM organised a big protest at the centenary game held on 16 April.

A South African Springbok rugby supporter taunts anti-apartheid demonstrators at Twickenham. The demonstrators were protesting against the inclusion of Springboks in a team taking part in the International Rugby Board centenary match on 19 April 1986. The Springboks were sponsored by the all-white South African Rugby Board. Springbok supporters came from South Africa to Twickenham and Cardiff Arms Park for the centenary.

Leaflet publicising a demonstration at the International Rugby Union’s centenary celebrations at Twickenham on 19 April 1986. The ‘rest of the world’ squad included several Springboks sponsored by the whites-only South African Rugby Board. The demonstration was organised by the AAM, SANROC and the British Black Conference against Apartheid Sport. There was also a demonstration in Cardiff, where the British Lions played a world squad on 16 April.