Rugby: Visagie drugs claim could shake Springboks

By CHRIS HEWITT

South African sport has been through the mincer over the last 12 months – the Hansie Cronje cricket match-fixing scandal, the bitter feud that ended Nick Mallett's reign as Springbok rugby coach – and there is more pain on the way.

Cobus Visagie, the World Cup prop forward from Western Province who failed a dope test after a domestic match in October, is claiming that the banned anabolic steroid was contained in a supplement given to him by the South African Rugby Football Union.

Visagie's lawyers made the allegation while presenting evidence to a disciplinary tribunal yesterday. The hearing, chaired by Judge Edwin King, who also headed the Cronje inquiry, has been adjourned until next month so that startled Sarfu officials can hold their own investigation.

If the 27-year-old player is vindicated, there will be acute embarrassment at the top end of the South African game. South Africa already has the worst record of drug abuse of any major rugby-playing nation.

One newspaper reported yesterday that scientists at Stellenbosch University had analysed the supplement taken by Visagie and discovered traces of nandrolone, which was found in the player's urine sample following a random test at the Currie Cup match between Western Province and Boland.

Visagie has always pleaded ignorance of any wrong doing, insisting from the outset that his supplements had been obtained through official channels.

One of the Springboks' more consistent performers at the 1999 World Cup, the tight-head specialist from Stellenbosch played against England in Bloemfontein last June but was prevented from joining the South African squad for their recent tour of Argentina and the British Isles.

If found guilty by the King tribunal, he will be banned from all rugby for two years in line with International Olympic Committee regulations.

The last Springbok suspended for drug abuse was Johan Ackermann, the Northern Transvaal lock, in 1997. There had long been widespread suspicions of steroid misuse amongst leading South African players, particularly during the 1980s, but the Ackermann case was the catalyst for a determined clean-up campaign.

Visagie, a chartered accountant who specialises in e-commerce, is a more celebrated performer than Ackermann was; last summer, he was named one of five South African players of the year.

Whichever way the verdict goes next month, the ramifications of the case will be serious.