Springboks outcast Aphiwe Dyantyi finally has a doping offence hearing date

Springboks outcast Aphiwe Dyantyi has finally been given a date for his career-defining hearing into his 2019 doping offence which could see him banned for four years. 

Now 26, the 13-times capped winger has been in limbo these past 13 months. It was August last year when Dyantyi, who had been in pre-World Cup training with the Springboks, was formally charged with a doping offence for multiple anabolic steroids and metabolites after his B-sample also tested positive. 

That was when SA Rugby confirmed the South African Institute of Drug-Free Sport (SAIDS) had detected an adverse analytical finding in the sample collected from the Springboks player in a doping test on July 2 while he was attending a South African training camp.

RugbyPass brings you the opening episode of the Le French Rugby podcast

RugbyPass brings you the opening episode of the Le French Rugby podcast

A statement at the time said: “SA Rugby, the Lions Rugby Company and Dyantyi are working with SAIDS, the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and all other relevant authorities on the matter and no further comment can be made at this stage.”

The player has been given a hearing date – September 15 – to finally explain himself after a year in which the 2018 World Rugby breakthrough player of the year was suspended and missed his country’s World Cup win in Japan. According to @rugby365com, Khalid Galant, CEO of SAIDS, has said the hearing will now not be completely virtual as was initially thought.  

Bad news for their Rugby Championship hopes. #RugbyChampionship #Argentina #Pumas pic.twitter.com/fXbj5x9dk2

— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) September 5, 2020

Dyantyi has long protested his innocence, issuing a statement last year when he was formally charged. “I want to deny ever taking any prohibited substance, intentionally or negligently, to enhance my performance on the field,” he said.

“I believe in hard work and fair play. I have never cheated and never will. The presence of this prohibited substance in my body has come as a massive shock to me and together with my management team and experts appointed by them, we are doing everything we can to get to the source of this and to prove my innocence.

“As a professional sportsman on national and international level, we get tested on a regular basis. I have been tested before and again since this test. Taking any prohibited substance would not only be irresponsible and something that I would never intentionally do. It would also be senseless and stupid.”

"Whereas van Grann has now lost five of these last-four fixtures (three in the league, two in Europe), Leinster remain the beacon on how to learn from your semi-final mishaps"

– Liam Heagney on the @PRO14Official Leinster vs Munster fallout ???

https://t.co/I6UrVUMPEC

— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) September 5, 2020