The narrow defeat in the physical and bruising encounter resulted in star eighth-man Gustav Erlank suffering a serious knee injury, with the exciting loose-forward now set to miss the remainder of the season.

Erlank has arguably been the standout player of the tournament up until his first-half injury, and he is now facing the prospect of spending the next nine to 12 months on the sidelines.

The injury occurred during a tackle by returning centre Zander du Plessis, who previously also represented the Griquas. Some viewed the challenge as a cheap shot, while others believed it was simply an unfortunate rugby incident. 

The bottom line, however, is that Erlank is ruled out, and the Griquas will have to tackle their SA Cup semi-final against the Boland Cavaliers – and potentially the final and later stages of the Currie Cup – without one of their key players.

That said, as significant as the blow is for the Peacock Blues, they still boast impressive depth across the squad.

Griquas coach Pieter Bergh admitted Erlank’s prognosis does not look promising. While he stressed Du Plessis did not intend to cause harm, he questioned the fairness of one player serving a 10-minute yellow card while the other faces close to a year out of the game.

Gustav Erlank receiving medical attention after his season-ending injury. Photo: Morgan Piek

“Yeah, that looks bad. I think he’ll be out for nine to 12 months, you know, that’s a serious injury,” Bergh told OFM Sport.

“There’s something fundamentally wrong in rugby that we need to look at. The guy makes an illegal tackle, he gets ten minutes, the other guy gets nine months. And that’s tough. That’s the game.

“It was a dangerous tackle. I know he didn’t mean it, I know Zander well, and I know he feels bad as well. But that’s the sport, one guy’s out for nine months, the other guy only sits out for ten minutes.”

“It’s crazy, but that’s the risk.

“We can’t worry about injuries when we get to team selection. We wanted to have momentum, and I think in that second half, this is exactly what we wanted. We got a lot of momentum in that second half that we can take into next week.

“We can get injuries at training, we can get injuries anywhere, so whether it was the best idea to play our best team, we’ll never know. We could have gotten injuries if we played other players as well.”

The Griquas will now turn their attention to Saturday’s SA Cup semi-final against Boland at Suzuki Stadium in Kimberley, while the Pumas will host the Cheetahs in Nelspruit in the other semi-final. SA Rugby is still expected to confirm the official kick-off times for the knockout clashes.

OFM Sport/Morgan Piek dg