KEY POINTS:
Veteran protester John Minto is surprised Eden Park administrators went to the trouble of installing trap door emergency exits for the Springboks in 1981.
The escape route will be revealed when the demolition of the South Stand gets underway as part of the redevelopment for the 2011 Rugby World Cup.
The trap doors were hastily built at Eden Park to give the visiting Springbok team an escape route after fears from Eden Park management that their changing rooms could be over-run by protesters.
Mr Minto said there were no plans to invade the players' changing rooms during the protest.
"A bit like Saddam Hussein is it? Bury yourself up to the neck in dirt? I haven't heard of that," Mr Minto said.
He said protesters were not aware of the emergency exit but laughed when nzherald.co.nz told him of its existence.
"Confronting the players on the field was the object. There were so many layers of barbed wire to get through," he said.
Mr Minto said Eden Park management took other precautions including nailing lines of number eight fencing wire the fence to make it harder for protesters to remove and putting shipping containers along Sandringham Rd to stop people getting too close to the fence.
"Do you think there's a tunnel there that could come out in a cellar at Reimers Ave or something? Of course it seems comical now but it was incredibly serious back then," Mr Minto said.
Auckland builder Terry Henshaw was called in to build the trap doors just days before the test at Eden Park.
In 1981, the only entry and exit from the changing rooms was the door out on to the park.
Mr Henshaw said he built a hatch up through the roof of the changing rooms and through the floor of what is now the cricket score keepers' box. He also cut holes and built a series of inter-connecting doors between the trust's offices and social areas.
"We didn't need to be sworn to secrecy, it was just expected that we wouldn't talk to anyone who might be a protester," Mr Henshaw said.
The game went ahead despite fierce protests that are best remembered for the actions of Marx Jones and Grant Cole, who dropped flour bombs and flares on to the park from their hired Cessna aeroplane.
The ground was not breached and the South Africans weren't forced to use the safety hatches.
Minister for the Rugby World Cup, Clayton Cosgrove will be at Eden Park to see the demolition begin.
The first phase of demolition is scheduled to take 6-8 weeks, with the remaining demolition of the Eastern Terraces and Panasonic Stand occurring in mid-2009.
