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'Really rash statement': Former Bok takes issue with doping culture allegations in SA rugby
By Liam Heagney
Former Springbok Robbi Kempson has no time for critics trying to blemish South Africa’s recent World Cup triumph by claiming there is a doping culture at large in the game in their country.
Further grist to the mill was recently added when Marco Wentzel, a lock capped twice by the Boks in 2002. Speaking to Sport24, he alleged: “The unfortunate fact is that if we look at the last few years in terms of the number of rugby players caught doping, critics have a point.
“In recent times we have had the cases of Gerbrandt Grobler, Chiliboy Ralepelle and Aphiwe Dyantyi and way back we had the likes of Johan Ackermann. It’s an issue and I don’t think those who raise the issue are factually incorrect.”
However, Southern Kings boss Kempson, the former prop who won 37 caps between 1998 and 2003, doesn’t believe the sport in South Africa is ravaged by doping.
“If you have tangible facts it is a different story,” he told RugbyPass following his latest trip to Europe ahead of Kings’ PRO14 match at Connacht on Saturday.
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“Certainly, the players we have (at Kings) we do random testing ourselves on a consistent basis and that is not just for steroid abuse, it’s for recreational drugs or whatever it might be.
“I think it is a really rash statement just to generalise South African rugby, specifically if you don’t really know the culture of the country and are not involved in the process of what has happened there. I can’t endorse those comments.
“It blights what I think was a fantastic (World Cup) victory for our country,” he continued. “It is something I never dwell on. I listen to the comments and just move on to be honest with you.
“It’s because I understand what we are trying to develop with our union [Kings in the Eastern Province], I played for the Stormers, I played for the Sharks and I know exactly what went on in those environments. Certainly there wasn’t abuse from my perspective that I saw or looked at players and gone ‘well, that is a bit odd’.”
Allegations of anabolic steroid use have dogged the Rainbow Nation for years and they recently reached a crescendo following the Springboks’ World Cup triumph in Japan.
The ongoing speculation was something legendary ex-Ireland player Brian O’Driscoll claimed people needed to be careful with. “I don’t think you can point fingers at anyone until individuals have tested positive,” the BT Sport pundit recently told RugbyPass.
“It doesn’t matter how big players are or how fit they are or what sort of condition they are in if they did lots of testing the only way of accusing someone is if they fail the test.”
WATCH: RugbyPass Rugby Explorer travel to South Africa to explore the stunning cities of Cape Town and Porth Elizabeth and meet the rugby communities in both cities
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Latest Comments
Nah, that just needs some more variation. Chip kicks, grubber stabs, all those. Will Jordan showed a pretty good reason why the rush was bad for his link up with BB.
If you have an overlap on a rush defense, they naturally cover out and out and leave a huge gap near the ruck.
It also helps if both teams play the same rules. ARs set the offside line 1m past where the last mans feet were😅
Go to commentsYeah nar, should work for sure. I was just asking why would you do it that way?
It could be achieved by outsourcing all your IP and players to New Zealand, Japan, and America, with a big Super competition between those countries raking it in with all of Australia's best talent to help them at a club level. When there is enough of a following and players coming through internally, and from other international countries (starting out like Australia/without a pro scene), for these high profile clubs to compete without a heavy australian base, then RA could use all the money they'd saved over the decades to turn things around at home and fund 4 super sides of their own that would be good enough to compete.
That sounds like a great model to reset the game in Aus. Take a couple of decades to invest in youth and community networks before trying to become professional again. I just suggest most aussies would be a bit more optimistic they can make it work without the two decades without any pro club rugby bit.
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