SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA - A Zimbabwean 17-YEAR-old boy died after staff at Sydney's Campbelltown Hospital twice told his mother to take him home following a school rugby accident.

The Sydney Morning Herald reports Kundai Chiundiza, a student at St Andrew's Cathedral School, died in his sitting-room yesterday after being told he was suffering from nothing more than a bruised sternum.

The teenager, originally from Zimbabwe, was playing fullback for the school's First XV on Saturday when he was shoulder charged during a tackle against St Gregory's College.

His mother Grace said he was taken to Campbelltown Hospital after he began vomiting on the sidelines and was prescribed a painkiller, but she found him dead in the lounge about four o'clock yesterday.

Police and Sydney South West Area Health Service are investigating the incident.

By Staff reporter and agencies