Rugby: Canterbury rep banned for two years

A Canterbury rugby player has been banned for using the banned peptides. Photo / Greg Bowker

A Canterbury under-19 rugby representative have been banned from the game for two years for possessing a performance enhancing drug.

The ban by New Zealand Rugby's judicial committee was handed down to Finn Hart-Strawbridge after he admitted to the online order of a peptide, which stimulates the production of human growth hormone.

The case was brought by Drug Free Sport New Zealand.

A 5mg vial of the peptide addressed to the Lincoln University player was seized by customs in October last year.

The substance is prohibited in and out of competition under World Rugby and New Zealand Rugby Anti-Doping Regulations. Hart-Strawbridge said he had ordered the peptide online as a "joke" after reading a series of articles in the New Zealand Herald last year about a reporter who experimented with the drug.

He told the committee he didn't realise importing the substance breached the regulations.

In banning the player for two years, the committee noted that because of his prompt admission to breaching the regulations, it would impose the ban from September 23, 2014, the date when he ordered the substance.

The Judicial Committee said this was an "ill-judged and immature action by a young athlete ... the lesson that must come from this case is that interception is likely and the consequences are severe".