A Boland rugby player is in a critical condition in intensive care at Worcester Medi-Clinic after he was repeatedly punched and kicked in the head during a match between two of the top premier league sides on Friday night.
Riaan Loots, who plays flyhalf for Rawsonville Rugby Club, was seriously hurt in the fight that broke out in the second half of the match against the Ceres side, Delicious Rugby Club, at Rawsonville.
Loots has bleeding on the brain.
DP Spangenberg, chairperson of Rawsonville, said that the club had laid a criminal charge of assault at Rawsonville police station.
Spangenberg said the fight broke out in the last minute of the game, with Delicious losing heavily. He saw Loots being kicked and punched repeatedly in the head.
"I saw the fight break out. Riaan had gone in to tackle one of the Delicious players and then it started.
"Riaan was punched in the face, and as he fell down another player kicked him in the head. And they carried on until I ran on to the field with others to break it up."
In earlier incidents on the field during the match players had stomped and kicked each other on the head.
Rawsonville won the match 23-6.
Spangenberg said that Loots, a student who worked part-time at the Dros pub in Stellenbosch, had been playing for Rawsonville since the beginning of the season, but was due to play for the Boland A team in Wellington this week.
"He is a pleasant person, a phenomenal rugby player and a good sportsman."
A hospital spokesperson said that they were waiting for doctors to decide how to treat Loots. If surgery became necessary he would probably be moved to another hospital.
Saturday, Bennie Leenders, the chairman of Delicious, declined to comment. "We are not going to make any statement and that is all I have to say."
Spangenberg said the fight on the field on Friday night was not the first violent incident of its kind in a match against Delicious.
In 2004, also at Rawsonville, a Delicious player hit Rawsonville's assistant coach on the head, bursting his eardrum.
The chairman of Delicious at the time, David Nasson, confirmed that his loosehead prop had hit the assistant coach, but said it was after the coach had reportedly made a racist remark.
In the ensuing melee during the match, the referee had to jump a fence and run for his life after Delicious fans threatened to assault him.