Pitched Battle - In the Frontline of the 1971 Springbok Tour of Australia

About the author

Larry Writer is an experienced journalist, author and publisher. His books include Razor (now a major TV series — Underbelly Razor), Never Before, Never Again, First Blood, Bumper: the life and times of Frank ‘Bumper’ Farrell, The Australian Book of True Crime, Pleasure and Pain (the biography of Chrissy Amphlett), Garden of Evil, and Winning. Larry has also ghost-written several autobiographies.

Summary

A vivid story of the men and women who took a stand when sport mixed with politics.

In 1971, when the racially selected all-white Springbok rugby team toured Australia, it became a nation at war with itself. There was bloodshed as tens of thousands of anti-apartheid campaigners clashed with governments, police, and rugby fans — who were given free reign to assault protestors. Queensland premier Joh Bjelke-Petersen declared a state of emergency. Prime minister William McMahon called the Wallabies who refused to play ‘national disgraces’. Barbed wire ringed the great rugby grounds to stop protestors invading the field.

Pitched Battle recreates what became of the most rancorous periods in modern Australian history — a time of courage, pain, faith, fanaticism, and political opportunism — which ultimately made heroes of the seven Wallabies who refused to play, played a key role in the later political careers of Peter Beattie, Meredith Burgmann, and Peter Hain, and ultimately led to the abandonment of apartheid.

Foreword

A vivid story of the men and women who took a stand when sport mixed with politics.

Additional text

‘A vivid story of the men and women who took a stand when sport mixed with politics In 1971 … Pitched Battle recreates what became one of the most rancorous periods in modern Australian history — a time of courage, pain, faith, fanaticism, and political opportunism — which … ultimately contributed to the abandonment of Apartheid.’

Product details

• Authors: Larry Writer
• Publisher: Faber Factory Plus GBS
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 08.12.2016
• EAN: 9781925228748
• ISBN: 978-1-925228-74-8
• No. of pages: 336
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > Education > Social education, social work; Social sciences, law, business > Sociology > Social structure research; Human Rights, POLITICAL SCIENCE / Human Rights, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Discrimination & Race Relations, POLITICAL SCIENCE / International Relations / General, SPORTS & RECREATION / History, SPORTS & RECREATION / Rugby, Rugby Union, International Relations, Republic of South Africa, history of sport, Social discrimination & inequality, Social discrimination & equal treatment, Human rights, civil rights, c 1970 to c 1980, Rugby Union;