The Times Editorial: There was more defensive scrambling in the Springbok team yesterday than in the two Test matches played so far on the South African rugby tour of the northern hemisphere.
That's usually the first reaction of a drug bust. When Tour de France winner Alberto Contador tested positive for drugs recently, he immediately blamed Spanish beef. It was one of the more original excuses.
The Springbok team's management was quick to suggest that drinks, food or medication could have been spiked when it was revealed that two of its players, reserve hooker Chiliboy Ralepelle and wing Bjorn Basson, had tested positive for a banned stimulant.
It's always tempting to respond: "Yeah, a likely story." In this case, we hope the story is true and that the ingestion of the drug was "inadvertent", as the Boks' team doctor has suggested. It's never pleasant to have your sporting heroes tainted by something as vile as drug-enhanced performances.
The sceptics and cynics might scoff at this, but we will reserve judgment on the current case until the B samples of both players are in and due process, if needed, has been completed.
A second positive test would mean a disciplinary hearing and a lengthy ban for the two players if their guilt were confirmed. We hope it does not come to this. Both men are exciting young players with loads of potential, just starting out on what could be successful rugby careers.
The case, however, should be a warning to our rugby authorities. They need to be vigilant as far as illegal stimulants, or drugs of any kind, are concerned.
The only way to police this is with rigorous and regular testing of the players. No doubt they will say that they already follow such a procedure, but then how did positive tests for Ralepelle and Basson occur?
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