In 1970, he refused an All Blacks trial ahead of the tour to South Africa, and by 1981, he was on the frontline of the anti-tour protest movement. 'I think it was the excitement of the rivalry between South Africa and New Zealand. The boys would collect clippings and include them in letters to the Springboks' families in South Africa. I don't think he'd come across that before in rugby," Burgess said. His readmittance to the sport came in 1994, when he watched the Springboks, representing a newly democratic South Africa, play his old province Manawatu.

Source: Otago Daily Times April 07, 2019 21:56 UTC