Team of '81 coming 'to reconcile'

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Former South African captain Wynand Claasen is to lead a "Reconciliation Tour" of Springboks and fans to the World Cup in New Zealand later this year, to mark the 30th anniversary of the highly controversial 1981 tour.

Claasen led the team which played the last official tests against the All Blacks under apartheid that year before a decade of isolation set in.

He said this week the aim was a reunion of close teammates and also "to embrace New Zealand and show we're not so bad".

He hoped 20 of the 28-man 1981 squad plus 40 supporters would travel with him in September to meet their old adversaries, rekindle tour memories, good and bad, and pay respects to those New Zealanders who stood by them.

Some of the'81 squad (hooker Robbie Cockrell and lock Louis Moolman) had died while others, like flyhalf Naas Botha and fullback Johan Heunis, had commitments at home (Botha will commentate on the event for TV from South Africa)

But Claasen expected most of the rest would to be on the plane. And hooker Shaun Povey and centre Willie du Plessis who'd since emigrated to Australia would join them here.

Andy Dalton, the 1981 All Black captain, had been asked to arrange a reception in Auckland where Claasen hoped to see old friends such as Murray Mexted and Billy Bush.

He expressed special affection for Bush, the captain of the Maori team the Springboks played on that tour and "a great friend of South Africa".

Bush told the Weekend Herald he hoped a "good number" of the'81 All Blacks would meet their Springbok offsiders. He remembered being banned from his local freezing works for going on the 1976 tour to South Africa, where he was targeted on account of his skin colour.

Five years later, the emotion his Maori teammates took into their game with the'Boks was remarkable. "Just before we kicked off, I said, 'These guys think they're superior. We're just crap to them.' And that really got the boys stoked up."

Asked how he felt now about the controversial tour now, Claasen said: "1981 was a very different time.
It was sad to see anti-South Africa feeling in New Zealand.

We were young guys who just wanted to beat the All Blacks. But, looking back, maybe South Africa had to go through that process to see the anti-South Africa, anti-government feeling."