Five of the most infamous drugs bans in rugby
Doping is a growing problem in rugby, particularly across the levels of the game that are not in the spotlight. In recent years, scandals in South African schoolboy rugby and semi-professional rugby in Wales have magnified how widespread this issue has become and various unions have tried to crack down on this.
However, in the top tier of professional rugby, failed tests are not as common. That isn’t to say there are none, though. Such cases often receive a lot of attention due to how rare they are among international players.
Here, RugbyPass sifts through some of the most infamous drugs bans of the modern era:
Matt Stevens
Ex-Bath and England prop Matt Stevens was handed a two-year ban by the European Rugby Cup in 2009 after testing positive for cocaine following a fixture against Glasgow in December 2008. The then-26-year-old was at the top of his game when this happened and it understandably created shockwaves.
The South African-born prop bounced back admirably from this ban, moving to Saracens and resurrecting his career. He was a key member of the London club’s resurgence at the beginning of last decade, starting in the victorious Premiership final in 2011.
He would also be capped by England again, playing in 2011 World Cup, and was even a surprise pick for the 2013 British and Irish Lions tour which followed on from his selection for the 2005 tour as well.
Justin Harrison
The Australian was banned for eight months after admitting taking cocaine at an end-of-season party with Bath in London following the 2008/09 campaign.
The then 35-year-old was one of four players charged by the Rugby Football Union with bringing the game into disrepute after the night out which also evolved a fight with rival Harlequins players.
Bath trio Michael Lipman, Alex Crockett and Andrew Higgins all resigned and received nine-month bans for failing to take drugs tests.
Following his ban, Harrison announced his retirement but he made a return to playing by signing a one-year deal with the Brumbies, the side he started his career with.
He then played for Narbonne in France before moving into coaching. Now works as CEO of the Rugby Union Players’ Association (RUPA) in Australia.
Wendell Sailor
The former dual-code Australia international was banned for two years in 2006 for cocaine use during his time playing for the New South Wales Waratahs.
The powerful winger argued that this was only recreational and therefore not performance-enhancing, but the ban still stood.
This came after a few months of ill-discipline in which Sailor was also sent home from a tour of South Africa for his behaviour, suspended for three matches and fined after an incident outside a Cape Town nightclub.
The drugs ban ended Sailor’s five-year union career in Australia. However, while it threw his entire career into doubt, he made the return to league in 2008 with St George-Illawarra, the club his son Tristan has now made the breakthrough at.
Johan Ackermann
The current Gloucester coach had a career in South Africa tarnished by his two-year ban in 1997 for taking the steroid nandrolone to help recover from an ankle injury.
The ex-lock was 26 years of age at the time and already had four Springboks caps to his name, but he was forced to rebuild his career after the ban.
He spent the two years out of rugby working for the police before a return to play for the Golden Lions, Cats, Griquas and Sharks in South Africa. There was also a stint with Northampton in England.
He would also play for South Africa again, becoming his country’s oldest ever player in 2007 at the age of 37. That record has since been surpassed.
Chiliboy Ralepelle
The ex-Springbok hooker’s career has been chequered with drug bans and drug-related incidents.
It first dated back to 2010 when at the then 24-year-old was suspended and sent home from his country’s end of year tour for testing positive for methylhexanamine constrained in a diet supplement.
This later turned out to have been supplied by the Springboks themselves and the charges didn’t stand after it was discovered that the British version of the supplement contained methylhexanamine, something which the South African version didn’t.
However, the 25-cap international failed a test again in 2014 while at Toulouse, testing positive for the anabolic steroid, drostanolone. He was banned for two years and his contract with the French giants was terminated.
He made a return to rugby in 2016 with the Sharks, but the 33-year-old is now awaiting a decision after his hearing for another failed drugs test in early 2019, this time for the growth hormone zeranol, which could result in a career-ending ban.
Comments on RugbyPass
Dagg is still trying to get enough headlines to make himself relevant enough to get a job. The Crusaders went back to square one at all levels. Shelve this season and nail the next one.
4 Go to commentsHe was in such great form. Sad for him but only a short term injury and it will be great to see him back for the finals.
1 Go to commentsAfter their 5/0 start, I had the Crusaders to finish Top 4 only…they lost the plot in Perth but will reload and back themselves vs 4th placed Rebels…
3 Go to commentsBoth nations missed a great opportunity to book a game that would have had a lot of interest from around the world. I understand these games can’t be organised in 5 minutes but they should have found a way to make it happen. I don’t think Wales are ducking anyone but it’s a bad look haha.
3 Go to commentsIt will be fascinating to see the effect that Jo Yapp has. If they can compete with Canada and give BFs a run for their money that will be progress
1 Go to commentsFollowing his dream and putting in the work. Go well young fella!
3 Go to commentsPerhaps filling Twickenham is one of Mitchell’s KPIs. I doubt whether both September matches will be at Twickenham on consecutive weekends. I would take the BF one to a large provincial stadium so as not to give them the advantage and experience of playing at Twickenham before a large crowd prior to the RWC.
3 Go to commentsvery unfortunate for Kitshoff, but big opportunity potentially for Nché to prove he is genuinely the best loosehead in the world, rather than just a specialist finisher. Presuming that if Kitshoff is out, it will also give Steenekamp a chance to come into the 23? Or are others likely to be ahead of him?
1 Go to commentsA long held question in popular culture asks if art imitates life or does the latter influence the former? Over this 6 nations I can ask the same question of the media influencing the thoughts of its audience or vice versa. Nobody wants to see cricket scores in rugby, as a spectacle it is not sustainable. With so many articles about England’s procession and lack of competition it feeds the epicaricacy of many looking for an opportunity to pounce. England are not the first team to dominate nor does it happen only in rugby, think Federer, Nadal, Red Bull or Mercedes, Manchester Utd, Australia in tests and World Cups. Instead of celebrating the achievements why find reasons to falsify it pointing towards larger playing pool, professional for a longer period or mitigate with the lack of growth in other nations. Can we not enjoy it while it is here and know that it won’t last for ever, others coveting what England have will soon take the crown, ask the aforementioned?
6 Go to commentsShame he won’t turn out for the Netherlands now they’re improving. U20s are Euro champs and in the U20 Trophy this year. The senior sides gets better every year too.
3 Go to commentsWill rugbypass tv be showing these games?
1 Go to commentsWell where do you start, the fact that England have a professional domestic league and Ireland’s is fully amatuer, that they have fully seperated professional squads at Fifteens and Sevens (7’s thinly disguised as GB), and Ireland have fully pro Sevens squad who loan some players back to the Semi-Professional Fifteens squad (moved from amateur for only a year or so) for a few games at 6N & RWC’s. The Women’s games is a shambles, and is at risk of killing itself by pushing for professionalism when the market isn’t really there to support it outside one or two countnries..
6 Go to commentsWayne Smith's input didn't have as much impact on the last final as Davison's red card for Thompson. England were 14 points up and flying when that happened.
6 Go to commentsBilly's been playing consistently well for 2 - 3 seasons now and deserves a look in at the top level. Ioane and ALB are still first choice but there needs to be injury cover and succession. His partnership with Jordie gives him first dibs you'd think. Go the Hurricanes.
3 Go to commentsIt’s not up to Wales to support Georgian Rugby. That’s up to International Rugby and Georgia. I sympathise with Georgia’s decent attempt to create this fixture. But for Wales the proposed match up is just a potential stick to beat them with and a potential big psychological blow that young Welsh team doesn’t need. (I’m Irish BTW.)
3 Go to commentsCale certainly looks great in space, but as you say, he has struggled in contact. At 23 years old, turning 24 this year, he should be close to full physical maturity and yet there exists a considerable gap in the power and physicality required for international rugby. Weight doesn’t automatically equate to power and physicality either. Can he go from a player who’s being physically dominated in Super rugby to physically dominating in international rugby in 1 or 2 years? That’s a big ask but he may end up being a late bloomer.
37 Go to commentsIf rugby wants to remain interesting in the AI era then it will need to work on changing the rules. AI will reduce the tactical advantage of smart game plans, will neutralize primary attacking weapons, and will move rugby from a being a game of inches to a game of millimetres. It will be about sheer athleticism and technique,about avoiding mistakes, and about referees. Many fans will find that boring. The answer is to add creative degrees of freedom to the game. The 50-22 is an example. But we can have fun inventing others, like the right to add more players for X minutes per game, or the equivalent of the 2-point conversion in American football, the ability to call a 12-player scrum, etc. Not saying these are great ideas, but making the point that the more of these alternatives you allow, the less AI will be able to lock down high-probability strategies. This is not because AI does not have the compute power, but because it has more choices and has less data, or less-specific data. That will take time and debate, but big, positive and immediate impact could be in the area of ref/TMO assistance. The technology is easily good enough today to detect forward passes, not-straight lineouts, offside at breakdown/scrum/lineout, obstruction, early/late tackles, and a lot of other things. WR should be ultra aggressive in doing this, as it will really help in an area in which the game is really struggling. In the long run there needs to be substantial creativity applied to the rules. Without that AI (along with all of the pro innovations) will turn rugby into a bash fest.
24 Go to commentsSouth Africa rarely play Ireland and France on these tours. Mostly, England, Scotland and Wales. I wonder why
2 Go to commentsIt was a let’s-see-what-you're-made-of type of a game. The Bulls do look good when the opposition allows them to, but Munster shut them down, and they could not find a way through. Jake should be very worried about their chances in the competition.
2 Go to commentsHats off to Fabian for a very impressive journey to date. Is it as ‘uniquely unlikely’ as Rugby Pass suggests, given Anton Segner’s journey at the Blues?
3 Go to comments