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New Zealander becomes second Verblitz player arrested for cocaine possession
By Online Editors
World Cup hosts Japan have been hit by a second drugs scandal involving the Jake White-coached Toyota Verblitz. It was last week when it emerged that fly-half Ryota Kabashima has been arrested on suspicion of possessing cocaine, forcing the team to be withdrawn from the Top League Cup.
Now it has been reported by Kyodo News that New Zealand-born Steven Yates was arrested Thursday on suspicion of also possessing cocaine. The 35-year-old, who gained Japanese nationality in 2015, admitted to possession of a small amount of cocaine found in a plastic bag at his home in Nagoya.
A Toyota club statement said: "We sincerely apologise for the continued arrests of our team members. We deeply regret that we have caused trouble at a time when Japan will soon host the Rugby World Cup.”
Coached by White, South Africa’s 2007 World Cup-winning boss, Verblitz had been scheduled to face Mitsubishi Sagamihara Dynaboars at Iwagin Stadium in Iwate Prefecture last Sunday in their first group stage match. However, Toyota reacted to the arrest of Kabashima by suspending the team's operations.
Cocaine was discovered in Kabashima’s wallet after he left it in a taxi on April 10 while visiting Toyota, Aichi Prefecture. The taxi driver handed in the wallet two days later, and police identified the wallet from Kabashima’s driver’s licence. Kabashima has denied the charges, saying he “doesn’t remember”.
The 28-year-old is an employee of Toyota Motor Corp and is suspected of violating the narcotics control law over the alleged possession of about one gram of cocaine, according to Aichi Prefectural Police.
Toyota finished fourth last season in the Japan Top League and while it is globally rare for an entire team to be suspended for the alleged misdemeanours of individuals, the culture is different in Japan.
Ten years ago, Tongan-born winger Christian Loamanu tested positive for marijuana which resulted in Toshiba Brave Lupus withdrawing from a tournament.
WATCH: Part one of the two-part RugbyPass documentary on what fans can expect in Japan at this year’s World Cup
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Latest Comments
Thats exactly the criticism Ed, that it has already been done for generations. A strong SA, in many respects, should certainly help African rugby develop. You'd have to think they'd acclimatize much better being drawn to a pro SA club than say a European. Hopefully the fact theyve gone private (is that right Graham?) should enable this sort of change.
Go to commentsPerofeta came back and was available for the eoyt right? Or was that why Love was in the squad (but got injured in the last week)?
It was such a frustrating year. Perofeta looked a service stop gap until Jordan was fit, but then got injured. Plummer was selected because of Pero's injury and dmac shat the bed in the second half in Australia but Clarke (?) got himself binned at the 65 min mark so Plummer couldn't come on (at least with the risk adverse Razors thinking) when he was planned to.
So many other exciting opportunities that could have happened without injuries, but then theyre probably balanced by knowing Sititi probably wouldn't have been given a chance without multiple injuries happened.
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