"A colour line affair" : race, imperialism and rugby football contacts between New Zealand and South Africa to 1950.

Abstract

This thesis is an attempt to construct an alternative tradition of New Zealand and South African rugby football contacts to 1950. It examines the wider social conditions of such contacts, unlike the existing plethora of rugby-centred chronicles of matches, tours, and sporting personalities. Rugby tours between New Zealand and South Africa before 1950 raised questions over the relationship between sport, race and imperialism. The manner that rugby reflected the divergent racial traditions in both societies thus challenges the cliche that sport is separate from wider social and political considerations.

The thesis consists of an introduction, conclusion and four chapters. The chapters correlate with the New Zealand and South African rugby exchanges of 1921, 1928, 1937, and 1949. They are dominated by the themes of race relations and sporting imperialism, which form the context of the tours. Research is based on New Zealand newspaper sources; contextual material is derived from secondary sources.