Springbok winger Dyantyi gets four-year doping ban

JOHANNESBURG: Springbok winger and 2018 World Rugby Breakthrough Player of the Year Aphiwe Dyantyi has received a four-year ban for taking three banned substances, a senior South African rugby official told AFP Sunday.

“This long-running case is finally over and Aphiwe has been given a four-year ban,” said the official, who requested anonymity as he is not an authorised spokesman.

An announcement confirming the ban is expected to be made Monday by South African Institute for Drug-free Sport (SAIDS) chief executive Khalid Galant.

The ban bars Dyantyi from playing rugby until August 12, 2023 -- 14 days before the back capped 13 times by South Africa in 2018 turns 29.

Dyantyi tested positive for metandienone, methyltestosterone and LGD4033, which are all on the World Anti-Doping Agency banned substances list, while attending a Springboks camp in August last year.

He subsequently submitted a B sample and it also tested positive.

Dyantyi insists he never “knowingly took any banned substance but drank from the bottle of a friend during a gym session two days before the urine sample was taken”.

Born in a town in the eastern Cape -- the heartland of black rugby in South Africa -- Dyantyi burst into the limelight while playing for the Johannesburgbased Lions in the 2018 Super Rugby competition.

His power, pace and try scoring on the left wing soon attracted the attention of new Springboks coach Rassie Erasmus and he debuted in a dramatic 42-39 triumph over England at his home ground, Ellis Park.

Dyantyi scored a try as South Africa recovered from a 243 deficit in the match which marked the debut of Siya Kolisi as the first black Springbok Test captain.

The powerfully built winger played in the other 12 internationals during 2018, scoring a further five tries, including two each against Argentina in Durban and New Zealand in Wellington.

His ban comes one month after hooker Mahlatse ‘Chiliboy’ Ralepelle, the first black player to skipper the Springboks in a non-Test match, lost an appeal against an eight-year ban for using an anabolic agent. - AFP