Shock as rugby player drops dead after match

Family and friends of a Uitenhage rugby player are in shock after the rising sports star died shortly after a game at the weekend.

Gardens Rugby Club player Ricardo Kiewiets‚ 26‚ from Daleview in Despatch‚ is believed to have suffered a heart attack within an hour of the match ending.

His death stunned the Nelson Mandela Bay rugby fraternity.

The Uitenhage club played against East London’s Cambridge Rugby Club at the Eastern Cape Super 12 rugby tournament held at the Derrick Ferreira Stadium in Uitenhage on Saturday afternoon‚ winning the game 46-7.

Kiewiets played mainly as a wing‚ but played at fullback in this game‚ scoring three tries.

Devastated Gardens coach Ronnie Korkee said Kiewiets had been socialising at a friend’s house – which they call the “clubhouse” – with fellow teammates and other players about an hour after the game‚ when he collapsed.

Kiewiets’s brother‚ Wendall Lindoor‚ 39‚ said Kiewiets had complained of chest pain after the match.

This story appeared in The Herald.

- TMG Digital/The Herald