SA Rugby's growing doping problem

NEWS: Rugby is in the spotlight for the wrong reasons once again in South African sport.

The South African Institute for Drug-Free Sport (SAIDS) annual report has revealed that it tested 1 584 athletes during the 2018/19 year and there were 50 anti-doping rule violations (ADRVs)

The most tested sport during 2018/19 was athletics with 427 followed by rugby with 342.

Rugby had the most ADRVs with 16 – including six schoolboys who were among those tested at the annual Craven Week interprovincial rugby tournament.

All six tested positive for anabolic steroids. Their names have not been made public as they are minors. SAIDS CEO Khalid Galant expressed concern at the number of ADRVs at schoolboy level and pointed to a "high tolerance by parents and coaches to doping practices".

It is an increase from the 2017/2018 year when 391 rugby union players were tested in the country, with seven ADRVs – three of which were from schoolboy-level players participating in the 2017 Craven Week Rugby Tournament

Last year Galant wrote to school rugby tournament organisers explaining the SAIDS Clean School Sport Policy, in terms of which "anti-doping detection, deterrence and prevention strategies will be extended to include in-competition testing at selected school sports events and tournaments". This was undertaken in collaboration with the SA Schools Rugby Association and supported by the SA Rugby Union and the Department of Sports and Recreation. Galant pointed out in the letter that anti-doping education was an integral part of the policy.

READ: Proudfoot defends SA Rugby's image after doping scandal

Recently Springbok star Aphiwe Dyantyi tested positive performance-enhancing substances.

The Lions star was provisionally suspended after the South African Institute for Drug-Free Sport notified him on August 14 that one of his urine samples had tested positive for a banned substance.

The 24-year-old denied taking any banned substances and exercised his right to have his B-sample analysed.

However, his B-sample also tested positive for performance-enhancing substances.

In a statement released by SAIDS at the time, it said Dyantyi's "B-sample was tested at the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) accredited laboratory at the University of the Free State which confirmed the A-sample results of the presence of the banned substances: methandienone, methyltestosterone and LGD-4033."

Dyantyi was formally charged with a doping offence for multiple anabolic steroids and metabolites. The wing could be ban for a maximum of four years.

CLICK HERE to view the Annual Report