Lukas van Biljon, a former Springbok hooker, and his father were assaulted in Oranjeville, South Africa, during a farm robbery.
While his father, André van Biljon, was shot three times in the chest and hand after attempting to call for assistance from other farmers over the radio, Lukas van Biljon was repeatedly stabbed in the chest.
The robbers also used cables to restrain his children. According to Mail Online, Van Biljon, 47, was warned during the incident that if he fought back, his children would be killed as a six-armed gang ransacked the farm in the wee hours of the morning.
The father of the former rugby player was also taken to the hospital for treatment.
Free State police spokesperson Captain Loraine Earle said two of the attackers were arrested, aged 32 and 42, after local farmers were alerted and put into place an action plan to block all roads in Viljoensdrift shortly after the attack on Friday night.
She said: “Just after midnight on Saturday the police were called to a robbery at a smallholding at Oranjeville belonging to the Van Biljon family where two men were injured.
“It is alleged six armed men entered the house and tied the children with cable ties and a 47-year-old man was stabbed and his 70-year-old father shot during the robbery”
The remaining robbers were still at large, Earle said.
A farmer who knows the Van Biljon family well said: “Lukas is a big strong boy but he could do nothing as it was made clear his children would be shot if he put up a fight.”
The two arrested suspects are due at the Heilbron Magistrate’s Court today on charges of house robbery and attempted murder while the other four are still being hunted.
The former Sharks hooker played 13 times for the Boks between 2001 and 2003 with his first game v Italy and his last v New Zealand.
