adminCape Town – Sam Broster, an English rugby player, claims his positive drugs test was a result of eating biltong. According to BBC Sport, Broster tested positive for the anabolic agent clenbuterol following a test at Macclesfield in July 2014.
He was suspended from all sport for two years by UK Anti-Doping (UKAD), with the ban – which has been in place since August 2014 – to continue through to August 15, 2016.
The Rugby Football Union found no basis for reducing the sanction, despite the player blaming eating biltong on his positive test.
UKAD’s director of operations, Pat Myhill, said in a statement: “Meat is an area of particular risk with clenbuterol as a contaminant, having caused adverse analytical findings in the past.”
“However, proving meat contamination is not straight forward, not least because the meat that has been contaminated will, in most cases, have been eaten.
“Finding evidence to support this defence can therefore be difficult.”
Meanwhile, as the organisers of Super Rugby consider further expansion, two of the most recent beneficiaries of that strategy provided fuel for their argument that the tournament must grow.
New Zealand Rugby chief executive Steve Tew said this week the expansion of Super Rugby beyond its current 18 teams and five nations is “inevitable” despite criticisms the tournament is already unbalanced and confusing.
Critics also point out that the three teams added to Super Rugby this year as it grew from 15 to 18 teams — the Sunwolves, Jaguares and Kings — have been uncompetitive, diluting its quality.
But, as if on cue, Japan’s Tokyo-based Sunwolves held the South Africa 1 conference-leading Stormers to a 17-17 draw in Singapore and the Jaguares took it right up to the Sharks in Buenos Aires before losing 25-22.
While neither result makes the argument that Super Rugby’s latest expansion has been a success, Tew says the creation of the Sunwolves and Jaguares has brought top rugby to new audiences.
Super Rugby and the salaries of its players are funded by broadcasting rights, and Tew argues the maintenance of the value of those rights is achieved by the breadth of the tournament’s audience and the markets in which it operates.
“When we go to the next set of broadcasting deals we’ve to be sure we’ve a footprint in South America, a footprint in Asia and possibly other markets or we’ll go bust because we continue to compete with the clubs (in Europe),” he said.
The five-year broadcasting deal signed by Super Rugby promoters SANZAR in 2015 was worth more than $400 million, an increase of about 20 percent over the previous term. It was also contingent on the establishment of teams in Japan and Argentina and the addition of a sixth South African franchise, the Kings.
Super Rugby is unlikely to expand again until 2020, but when it does so some experts estimate the value of broadcasting rights might exceed $1 billion.
But despite its expansion, the tournament must still be played between February and August with a break for test matches in June which makes a full round-robin impossible. For that reason, the tournament has been broken into conferences in New Zealand, Australia and Africa.
In the weekend’s 12th round, the defending champion Highlanders beat the seven-time champion Crusaders 34-26 to leave them in a three-way tie atop the New Zealand conference with 37 points, along with the Hamilton-based Chiefs.
The Wellington-based Hurricanes are a point behind after Saturday’s bonus-point win over the Queensland Reds.
The Johannesburg-based Lions crushed the Auckland-based Blues 43-5 to move atop the combined South African group, a point ahead of the Cape Town-based Stormers, who dropped to second after their draw with the Sunwolves.— Sport24.
Online Reporter