Daan Human opens up on Ntlabakanye doping hearing, prop depth in the Boks

Springbok prop Asenathi Ntlabakanye faces a doping hearing this month, which will have a significant impact on his future going forward. Picture: Franco Arland/Gallo Images Springbok scrum guru Daan Human is hopeful that rising prop talent Asenathi Ntlabakanye will get through his doping hearing unscathed and will be available for the Boks at the start of the new international season in June. Ntlabakanye was pinged for two doping violations last year, one for a specified (non-performance enhancing) substance found during a routine doping test, and the other for a prescribed medicine containing a banned substance by a specialist that he had declared on a form.

According to reports, both times Ntlabakanye was prescribed those medications, which had been cleared by medical professionals, making it a much more complex case than usual. He was meant to face a hearing in December, but that was pushed back to March for further investigation and to get the evidence of expert witnesses, so it will now take place towards the end of this month. It has been speculated that Ntlabakanye could receive a two-year ban, instead of the usual four years, due to the extenuating circumstances, but both Human and Bok coach Rassie Erasmus are holding out hope that he might be cleared of wrong-doing.

In January Erasmus said that he was nervous about the upcoming hearing, but also said he believed that Ntlabakanye had done nothing wrong personally. Despite his potential ban, Ntlabakanye was invited to the first Bok alignment camp of the year, in Cape Town this week, and this past Monday at a Springbok media day, Human said his selection was due to his top recent form. “I don’t want to say anything about the disciplinary hearing because I don’t know too much about that.

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I am more focused on the guys who are here and he is one of them. He has been invited because he is playing good rugby,” said Human. “Hopefully he will get through that hearing and hopefully he will be available for us as soon as possible.

“I can really see the improvement he has made (over last year). I had a lekker chat with him the other day and hopefully we can keep him fit and ready.” If the Boks were to lose Ntlabakanye it would be a big blow to their prop stocks, which have been rocked in recent years by the forced retirement of Steven Kitshoff, and the unavailability of injured stalwarts Frans Malherbe, who was at the alignment camp, and Trevor Nyakane.

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