It was a warm Taranaki welcome for 1981 Springboks

A diminutive David Caskey gets a prized autograph from Springbok Naas Botha. File Picture

Twenty-five years on, David Caskey can still recall the day the Springboks came to Waverley.

Back then he was 10, and the arrival of an international rugby squad in the small South Taranaki township midway between Hawera and Wanganui was big news.

He didn't see the South Africans play Taranaki that week but remembers many of the town's residents turning out to welcome them - a far cry from the protests that greeted the tourists at other centres around the country.

"They came and practised at Waverley. It was pretty cool, I thought. Everyone in Waverley liked rugby and came out to see them. I was pretty rapt to meet some Springboks."

While the reception was warm in his town, Mr Caskey, now a 35-year-old truck driver living in Stratford, recalls watching rioting and protests in other areas on television.

"There was a lot of rioting, a lot of trouble going on. It was pretty amazing to see people rioting about things like that."

He is still a firm believer that politics should not interfere with sporting events.

"I was a bit disappointed as a young fella that people wanted to stop the All Blacks from playing them.

"Apartheid was political - it wasn't anything to do with rugby."

And despite the eventual demise of racial segregation, influenced in part by the actions of protesters in 1981, Mr Caskey believes that the tour was justified.

"Rugby is just a game. I didn't think it was right to bring politics into it. Everything has settled down now, though. It's good."

And memories remain fond of the day he got an autograph from legendary South African back Naas Botha, and his picture in the newspaper.

"I think my mum still has a copy of that picture."