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.
During the match, anti-apartheid protesters in a light plane repeatedly buzzed Auckland’s Eden Park, 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. Watching 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 visiting Springbok team that many viewed as the standard-bearer for South Africa’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 passionately disagreed with.
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”.
Mourie received hate mail over his decision and said members of his own family regarded him as an “idiot”.
The divisions were even more stark on the streets of New Zealand, where the tour was overshadowed by bloody protests unprecedented in the normally peaceful nation.
A match against Waikato in Hamilton had to be cancelled after demonstrators invaded the pitch, prompting anti-riot police to adopt increasingly brutal tactics.
They staged baton charges on crowds outside parliament in Wellington in what became known as “The Battle of Molesworth Street”.
In response, protesters donned motorcycle helmets and makeshift body armour, arming themselves with clubs and bats.
“It was an extremely tense atmosphere around the country,” Minto told AFP. “I’ve no doubt that if the tour had gone on for a week or two longer then we would have seen people killed.”
For the Eden Park Test on September 12, more than 2,100 police – about 40 per cent of the entire 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 eventually prevailed 25-22 to take the Test series 2-1.
The numbers off the field were 67 protestors hospitalised, hundreds more facing charges and a six-month jail term for Marx Jones, the pilot who flew the flour-bomb mission in a single-engine Cessna.
“We lost the battle, in the sense that the game went ahead,” Minto said.
“But we won the war because the Springboks didn’t play another major rugby-playing nation until 1992 after apartheid was abandoned.”
The veteran protester proudly recalls how Nelson Mandela said the New Zealand demonstrations provided a morale boost to his movement, particularly when the Hamilton game was cancelled.
“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.”
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ENGLAND SQUAD
Joe Root (captain), Dom Sibley, Rory Burns, Dan Lawrence, Ben Stokes, Ollie Pope, Ben Foakes (wicketkeeper), Moeen Ali, Olly Stone, Chris Woakes, Jack Leach, Stuart Broad
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BUNDESLIGA FIXTURES
Friday (UAE kick-off times)
Cologne v Hoffenheim (11.30pm)
Saturday
Hertha Berlin v RB Leipzig (6.30pm)
Schalke v Fortuna Dusseldof (6.30pm)
Mainz v Union Berlin (6.30pm)
Paderborn v Augsburg (6.30pm)
Bayern Munich v Borussia Dortmund (9.30pm)
Sunday
Borussia Monchengladbach v Werder Bremen (4.30pm)
Wolfsburg v Bayer Leverkusen (6.30pm)
SC Freiburg v Eintracht Frankfurt (9on)
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Kumulus Water
Started: 2021
Founders: Iheb Triki and Mohamed Ali Abid
Based: Tunisia
Sector: Water technology
Number of staff: 22
Investment raised: $4 million
Glossary of a stock market revolution
Reddit
A discussion website
Redditor
The users of Reddit
Robinhood
A smartphone app for buying and selling shares
Short seller
Selling a stock today in the belief its price will fall in the future
Short squeeze
Traders forced to buy a stock they are shorting
Naked short
An illegal practice
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Specs
Engine: Electric motor generating 54.2kWh (Cooper SE and Aceman SE), 64.6kW (Countryman All4 SE)
Power: 218hp (Cooper and Aceman), 313hp (Countryman)
Torque: 330Nm (Cooper and Aceman), 494Nm (Countryman)
On sale: Now
Price: From Dh158,000 (Cooper), Dh168,000 (Aceman), Dh190,000 (Countryman)
Temple numbers
Expected completion: 2022
Height: 24 meters
Ground floor banquet hall: 370 square metres to accommodate about 750 people
Ground floor multipurpose hall: 92 square metres for up to 200 people
First floor main Prayer Hall: 465 square metres to hold 1,500 people at a time
First floor terrace areas: 2,30 square metres
Temple will be spread over 6,900 square metres
Structure includes two basements, ground and first floor
FROM%20THE%20ASHES
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Test
Director: S Sashikanth
Cast: Nayanthara, Siddharth, Meera Jasmine, R Madhavan
Star rating: 2/5
La Mer lowdown
La Mer beach is open from 10am until midnight, daily, and is located in Jumeirah 1, well after Kite Beach. Some restaurants, like Cupagahwa, are open from 8am for breakfast; most others start at noon. At the time of writing, we noticed that signs for Vicolo, an Italian eatery, and Kaftan, a Turkish restaurant, indicated that these two restaurants will be open soon, most likely this month. Parking is available, as well as a Dh100 all-day valet option or a Dh50 valet service if you’re just stopping by for a few hours.
Honeymoonish
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IF YOU GO
The flights: FlyDubai offers direct flights to Catania Airport from Dubai International Terminal 2 daily with return fares starting from Dh1,895.
The details: Access to the 2,900-metre elevation point at Mount Etna by cable car and 4x4 transport vehicle cost around €57.50 (Dh248) per adult. Entry into Teatro Greco costs €10 (Dh43). For more go to www.visitsicily.info
Where to stay: Hilton Giardini Naxos offers beachfront access and accessible to Taormina and Mount Etna. Rooms start from around €130 (Dh561) per night, including taxes.
Bournemouth 0
Manchester United 2
Smalling (28'), Lukaku (70')
Real estate tokenisation project
Dubai launched the pilot phase of its real estate tokenisation project last month.
The initiative focuses on converting real estate assets into digital tokens recorded on blockchain technology and helps in streamlining the process of buying, selling and investing, the Dubai Land Department said.
Dubai’s real estate tokenisation market is projected to reach Dh60 billion ($16.33 billion) by 2033, representing 7 per cent of the emirate’s total property transactions, according to the DLD.
The White Lotus: Season three
Creator: Mike White
Starring: Walton Goggins, Jason Isaacs, Natasha Rothwell
Rating: 4.5/5
Bharat
Director: Ali Abbas Zafar
Starring: Salman Khan, Katrina Kaif, Sunil Grover
Rating: 2.5 out of 5 stars
Match info
Uefa Champions League Group F
Manchester City v Hoffenheim, midnight (Wednesday, UAE)
MATCH INFO
Barcelona v Real Madrid, 11pm UAE
Match is on BeIN Sports
Brief scores:
Toss: India, opted to field
Australia 158-4 (17 ov)
Maxwell 46, Lynn 37; Kuldeep 2-24
India 169-7 (17 ov)
Dhawan 76, Karthik 30; Zampa 2-22
Result: Australia won by 4 runs by D/L method
Skewed figures
In the village of Mevagissey in southwest England the housing stock has doubled in the last century while the number of residents is half the historic high. The village's Neighbourhood Development Plan states that 26% of homes are holiday retreats. Prices are high, averaging around £300,000, £50,000 more than the Cornish average of £250,000. The local average wage is £15,458.
In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe
Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010
Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille
Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm
Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year
Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”
Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013