Springbok duo fail drug tests
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South Africa’s Chiliboy Ralepelle and Bjorn Basson will play no further part in the Springboks’ tour of Britain and Ireland after the pair failed doping tests.
The duo both returned positive test samples for the banned stimulant methylhexaneamine following South Africa’s 23-21 win over Ireland in Dublin on November 6.
Six Nations Rugby Ltd – who administer the November internationals – informed the South African Rugby Union of the positive tests late on Sunday.
As a result the pair are provisionally suspended from all rugby, including this Saturday’s match against Scotland at Murrayfield and the November 27 encounter against England, and will return to South Africa on Monday.
Basson injured an ankle playing on the wing in Saturday’s 29-25 win over Wales in Cardiff – a match where front row Ralepelle came off the bench – and was due to return anyway.
The players were randomly drawn for testing by anti-doping officials following the Test at Lansdowne Road. Both Basson and Ralepelle have the right to request that their ‘B’ sample be tested.
A SARU statement said the pair “returned an adverse analytical finding for methylhexaneamine, a ‘non-specified stimulant’ on the prohibited substances list of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). It is scheduled to be re-classified as a ‘specified stimulant’ from January 1, 2011.”
‘Non-specified’ means there are no concessions in the WADA code for unintended use.
Methylhexaneamine, a stimulant that appears in some nasal decongestants, was also the substance that led to Nigeria’s Osayemi Oludamola being stripped of her 100 metres gold medal at the Delhi Commonwealth Games last month.
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- bjorn basson, Chiliboy Ralepelle, Rugby Union, Springboks
November 16th 2010 @ 6:12am
Poth Ale said | November 16th 2010 @ 6:12am | Report comment
Hmmm…
Do players get banned for this? Or do the team medics get fired for giving them the ‘wrong stuff’?
November 16th 2010 @ 7:03am
Rusty said | November 16th 2010 @ 7:03am | Report comment
Wow – thats a turn up for the books…Will be interesting to see how this turns out if as you say its the team doctors sorting out their flu/colds… hell if thats the case the whole team might be positive! on the plus side, Basson is already out of the tour and Chilliboy was appalling last week so a chance for Strauss is probably more than due.
November 16th 2010 @ 7:11am
Brett McKay said | November 16th 2010 @ 7:11am | Report comment
other versions of this same story I’ve read this morning have PdV expressing concern that the whole team may be in danger, as they all consumed the same suppliment drinks that were allegedly the source of the substance here..
November 16th 2010 @ 7:31am
el gamba said | November 16th 2010 @ 7:31am | Report comment
Is ‘Susie’ their medic?
Perhaps she should have stuck to cooking.
November 16th 2010 @ 6:03pm
Mick Gold Coast QLD said | November 16th 2010 @ 6:03pm | Report comment
el gamba – fabulous! Well done.
November 16th 2010 @ 7:22am
plugger said | November 16th 2010 @ 7:22am | Report comment
Does that mean South Africa forfeit the games they won on this tour?
November 16th 2010 @ 8:15am
Loftus said | November 16th 2010 @ 8:15am | Report comment
Not enough evidence yet to start pointing fingers, but if it turns out that the Springbok team doctor gave these 2 players this medication,where do this leave the Bulls? The Bulls have just paid millions for Basson and if he gets banned for longer than 3 months he will miss out on the S15. Surely,if the Springbok medical team prescribed them with these medicine,the Bulls must get financial retribution for the loss of these 2 players.Let’s hope their B samples test negative but I’m not very optimistic.What a circus.
November 16th 2010 @ 8:37am
simplesimon said | November 16th 2010 @ 8:37am | Report comment
Imagine how bad they’d be if they weren’t drug cheats (allegedly)
November 16th 2010 @ 9:03am
Poth Ale said | November 16th 2010 @ 9:03am | Report comment
What’s most interesting in all this has been the response of PdV thus far.
PdV of old would have said: Substance, what substance? Or it was the guyt who took the sample – he’s from the 6 Nations, it must be a NH plot.
“…I found this out at 2am this morning and now we must follow the correct processes as laid down by the International Rugby Board.”
He’s now saying he fears the whole squad may have taken the substance that led to Bjorn Basson and Chiliboy Ralepelle failing doping tests.
The Springboks doctor Craig Roberts also disclosed that the players had been taking medication for flu symptoms before testing positive for the banned stimulant methylhexaneamine after beating Ireland
De Villiers said that some of the team’s energy drinks have now been sent for testing and is quoted in media as saying “we don’t want to put the players at risk. If there is something that we are taking as a squad that might have caused this then we must find that out now.”
November 16th 2010 @ 12:13pm
Rusty said | November 16th 2010 @ 12:13pm | Report comment
you mean – he actually made a sensible response rather than “if we want to take stimulants we will find a koffiehuis and koeksister masheen in the veld…”
November 16th 2010 @ 12:17pm
Pothale said | November 16th 2010 @ 12:17pm | Report comment
Exactly Rusty. Very measured response from de Villers. I understand he has a new press guy with him on this tour.
November 16th 2010 @ 12:34pm
Rusty said | November 16th 2010 @ 12:34pm | Report comment
either that or someone drank all his ‘medicine’
November 16th 2010 @ 9:23am
Jamesb said | November 16th 2010 @ 9:23am | Report comment
The jarpies have been doping for years, but we all thought they had moved on from this type of behaviour.
November 16th 2010 @ 10:30am
Lee said | November 16th 2010 @ 10:30am | Report comment
Got some proof I assume?
Given that all players have random tests by independent agencies, that’s a pretty bold and far reaching statement.
November 16th 2010 @ 11:11am
TembaVJ said | November 16th 2010 @ 11:11am | Report comment
Lee as predicted the usual saffa bashers will line up for this one.
So pathetic, if it was an All black it would be another story… they have another set of rules
November 16th 2010 @ 12:32pm
plugger said | November 16th 2010 @ 12:32pm | Report comment
On the contrary. I think the South African authorities should be complimented for making the decision and making the names public so soon. Other nations have tried to keep a lid on these things.
November 16th 2010 @ 2:30pm
woodster said | November 16th 2010 @ 2:30pm | Report comment
Man how many times do I have to tell these professional athletes? you do the entertaining and we’ll do the drug taking.
November 16th 2010 @ 6:38pm
Tui said | November 16th 2010 @ 6:38pm | Report comment
Turn it up Temba