Aphiwe Dyantyi deserves praise, not condemnation

Dear Oh Dear Oh Dear Derek, what on earth are you drinking and smoking?

Are you reading the posts properly before responding to them with totally irrelevant gibberish?

WHOM amongst us made the sweeping generalisation that ALL the Boks are taking steroids? NOBODY.

ONE player was under discussion with a couple of his compatriots mentioned as serial offenders. The wider issue of steroid abuse in younger age groups was also included but I don't recall anyone accusing ALL SA rugby players of being drug cheats.

Aphiwe was caught with 3 DIFFERENT steroid metabolites in his system. Does that sound like Very Careful Use?

This is a Rugby Forum - not a socio-historic lesson. Why not simply say that the Boks have a genetic advantage?

I feel safe espousing that 90% of rugby fans in this country have had secondary if not tertiary education and it's very plain that the subtext of your original post is that of an embittered man more interested in a speech about ancient history and a few generalist comments on the physical and a deep-seated hatred for England and the English. Why do you live here??

And Derek, don't accuse me of being a SA hater. I spent 4yrs in Afrika. I only went to watch the world cup in 1995 and to stay for a few months afterwards. However, as a friend of the Hewlett family I was in VIP, met Mandela and even attended the final. Joburg was a bit sketchy in places but I loved Durban and Cape Town.

Did the Garden Route - Plett, PE, Jeffrey's Bay, Ostriches, a year in Green Point by the Putt Putt, worked at Carlos O’Brians on Loop and Longhorns in Durban. I've still got friends in Ballito and Umhlanga Rocks.

And Faf is my favourite scrum-half of all time just in front of GG from Oz.

Yes yes - the above isn't all strictly rugby but it's not a diatribe against SA and South Africans.

And then I did 2yrs for the Red Cross in every country from Zim to Kenya building schools, irrigation systems and bore holes for fresh water.

Here’s to all of your sour blouses commenting here. The South African heritage is Holland Germany and French with a few other secondary races in it. The Dutch people are amongst the tallest people in the world. The Germans are also big people. This mixture of races is what gives the South Africans bulk and height. Steroids may build muscle but they do not build bone. Steroids also slow down player’s speed and make them muscle bound unless they are used very carefully. Before the turn of the 1900’s the South African Boers were already bigger than their cruel masters the British Empire. The Brits had better weaponry and supply lines than the Boers and the Boers still hammered them. In the early 1900’s the Springboks were already bigger, stronger and faster than you lot. Were there anabolic steroids on offer then???? A BIG NO!!! So carry on reading your tabloids, articles and listening to your podcasts that are always the most biased, most sour and anti-South African hence the constant pathetic rhetoric that you read and so gullibly take in. The reason for your hate is that most of the time you are beaten by the Boks on the rugby field and even with the most simple army the Boers still gave their British masters a hiding. Food for thought for you miserable people below.

Ridiculous. He’s just the tip of the iceberg with what’s going on in SA. The rugby system pressuring young boys to dope who are still in school are being exposed to all sorts of negative health effects whilst then receiving benefits for muscle gain and retention for the rest of their playing career.

Is it a surprise the springboks are the largest team in world rugby? No sports scientist or nutritionist will say that’s because of biltong and boerewors!

Absolute bullshit. As soon as you take anabolic steroids, the number of myonuclei in your body is artificially elevated for life, give you an unfair advantage over all clean athletes.

Springboks, Awhie, rasie, pack of cheats.

“everything that we should hold sacrosanct in our game.” win at all cost including cheating. Nice one

And as for you Gallan, the author of this piece, you've clearly never tried to play sports at an elite level and dragged your arse out of bed at 6am to run 10km, done a day's work and then hit the gym at 7pm for a weights session. Because if you had - YOU WOULDN'T BE BACKING A BLATANT CHEAT WHO COULDN'T BE BOTHERED. FFS.

I'm all for second chances. We all make mistakes. But cheating while everyone around you is breaking his or her back trying to make the grade is a disgrace. And forgiveness comes after contrition. This joke of a ‘sportsman’ ( the clue is in the word BTW) hasn't the decency to admit that he made a conscious decision to cheat and betray his teammates and coaches. We don't need people with no moral compass and not the first idea of the damage he's done to our glorious sport.

Open arms and forgiveness??

Do me a favour.

Imagine pimping for dopers now. Jesus Christ - do you actually believe this stuff?

You’re asking for sympathy for a guy who hasn’t even admitted his doping and using the article instead to hammer someone for calling this out?

I’m not saying he should be publicly pilloried for it - but he cheated in the most heinous way and has rightly been punished.

Why should everyone just welcome him back with open and loving arms?

Just because you liked him when you interviewed him, mate, doesn’t make you right about this. Sure - ask for sympathy - but don’t attack those who don’t have any for cheaters.

Darcy was a bang average player and like his colleague Matt Williams, a bang average rugby pundit. Pay him no attention and let him slip into irrelevance quietly.

In a sport full of head injuries from powerful collisions, taking steroids is a pretty immoral and dangerous thing to do. If as you say he's not admitted to it then I have no sympathy. Everyone knows before they stick that needle in their ass that if they are caught they will be vilified and he made his decision. If he admits what he did and apologies publicly maybe I'll feel differently.

D’Arcy … the perfect human being . Never made a mistake in his life !

Nicely written.