7 September 2015

Former South Africa rugby player banned for positive doping test

Former South Africa rugby union player Chiliboy Ralepelle has been suspended for two years after testing positive for an anabolic steroid. In a statement on its website World Rugby, the world governing body for rugby union, said that the 28-year-old had failed an out-of-competition doping test over a year ago on 19 March 2014 while recovering from an operation for an anterior cruciate ligament injury.

In June last year, the South African Institute for Drug-Free Sport confirmed in a statement that Ralepelle had returned a positive test for drostanolone, a banned anabolic steroid listed in the WADA (World Anti-Doping Agency) 2014 Prohibited List. At the time Ralepelle had been recovering from an operation for a knee injury sustained while playing for the French club Toulouse in a Top 14 match against Biarritz in France earlier that year.

Ralapelle was provisionally suspended and, according to World Rugby, had requested additional time, through his legal representatives, in order to conduct confidential enquiries in order to prepare his defence.

An independent World Rugby Judicial Committee sat in early June this year to hear all evidence in the case. After ‘considering all aspects of the case’, the committee found Ralepelle to have committed an anti-doping rule violation and subsequently imposed the two-year suspension. The suspension is backdated to the point of the provisional suspension, 10 April 2014, so Ralepelle will be free to play rugby once again on 10 April 2016.

Ralepelle originally appealed the suspension but on 3 September decided to discontinue his appeal, following which the suspension was implemented. In a statement, World Rugby Chief Executive Brett Gosper said that the case illustrated ‘the rigorous anti-doping programme’ conducted by World Rugby in conjunction with WADA.

Ralepelle had previously been suspended and sent home from a South Africa international rugby tour in November 2010 alongside fellow team-mate Bjorn Basson, after testing positive for banned stimulant following a match between South Africa and Ireland in Dublin. Both players tested positive for methylhexaneamine, a ‘non-specified stimulant’ on WADA’s prohibited substances list. However Ralepelle was cleared of wrongdoing by the South African Rugby Union because the stimulant had come from a supplement provided to the players.

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