The Ruck has launched a multi-part documentary series tracing the full arc of the Springboks-All Blacks rivalry, and the opening episode goes straight to the rot at its roots. Hosts Will Kelleher, Elgan Alderman and Alex Lowe frame the story around a single 1921 incident — the Blackett telegram — in which a South African rugby correspondent's leaked cable, describing Springbok disgust at playing a Maori team, exposed a racial policy that the team management wasn't even trying to hide. Auckland-based rugby historian Jamie Wall makes the case that Springboks manager Harold Bennett did far more damage than Blackett: Bennett explicitly told his Maori counterpart Ned Perata that a Maori touring team would find no accommodation in South Africa and that he'd be recommending their exclusion from any future New Zealand side to tour there. That private conversation, Wall argues, formalised a discriminatory selection condition that would define — and ultimately destroy — the bilateral relationship for the next six decades.
The racist policy that shaped 60 years of Springbok-All Black history
The Ruck's new documentary series opens with the 1921 Blackett telegram scandal, arguing that Springboks manager Harold Bennett's explicit exclusion policy toward Maori players set the racist template that poisoned the rivalry for 60 years.
The Ruck's new documentary series opens with the 1921 Blackett telegram scandal, arguing that Springboks manager Harold Bennett's explicit exclusion policy toward Maori players set the racist template that poisoned the rivalry for 60 years.
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