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Aphiwe Dyantyi deserves praise, not condemnation
What is the purpose of punishment? Can a sinner ever be forgiven? Should the condemned forever walk this earth as marked men?
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After thousands of years, all the religions of the world are still searching for concrete answers to these complicated questions. If only they’d sought the definitive advice of the former Ireland centre Gordan D’Arcy who would have provided short and clear retorts to all of the above.
This week, the three-time European Champions Cup winner with Leinster had a bone to pick in his Irish Times column. The source of his ire was the reception Aphiwe Dyantyi received at Kings Park in Durban as Connacht snatched an impressive one-point victory against the Sharks.
“What really struck me was that [Dyantyi’s] return was so celebrated by the home crowd and the home broadcaster,” D’Arcy lamented. “Dyantyi did very little of note in the game and yet he was interviewed post-match. Nobody was in the least bit sheepish or ashamed about welcoming back a proven doper.”
It’s true, Dyantyi was found guilty of taking a banned substance shortly after being recognised as World Rugby’s breakthrough player of the year in 2018. It was a shocking blow not only for the player himself, but for South African rugby and its loyal supporters. His introduction to the elite level of the game felt like a supernova, one that exploded with dazzling colours but faded all too suddenly.
Having scored a try on his Super Rugby debut – for the Lions against the Sharks – he repeated the trick in his first Test when he dotted down against England in Siya Kolisi’s first game as Springboks captain. He started the next two Tests as South Africa won the series and was a regular feature in the Rugby Championship that season, scoring five tries in six Tests.
I spoke to him after on the eve of his appearance for the Barbarians against Argentina in Twickenham a few months later. Barely past his 24th birthday, he had that irresistible combination of cockiness and naivety. As if he knew the world was at his feet even though he had no idea where his next step would take him. Already equipped with a trademark celebration, he told me with a toothy smile that he harboured big dreams. That he foresaw himself as a mainstay of a Springboks side that had the potential to conquer the world.
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A hamstring injury cruelly ruled him out of contention for the 2019 World Cup but that was merely the jab that preceded a devastating right cross. On 24 August that same year, news broke that he had tested positive for an unspecified illegal substance.
“I want to deny ever taking any prohibited substance, intentionally or negligently, to enhance my performance on the field. I believe in hard work and fair play,” Dyantyi said in a statement. “I have never cheated and never will.”
That’s not how a three-person panel saw it and one of the game’s most exciting prospects was banned for four years.
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How did he cope with the isolation? Can you imagine the pain that must have registered every time the likes of Cheslin Kolbe, Makazole Mapimpi and Kurt-Lee Arendse crossed the whitewash? “That should have been me,” is what he surely thought throughout the most successful period in South African rugby history. Wouldn’t that have been punishment enough?
Dyantyi served his time. That he remained fit and motivated enough to seamlessly return to professional rugby is a testament to his character. Lesser men might have resorted to despair and depression, seeking solace in activities that would have ruined his body and mind.
“I believe in second chances,” Erasmus said before Dyantyi’s comeback match against D’Arcy’s former team, Leinster, on 10 October this year. “If there’s a ban and that’s what the disciplinary decided, he’s served his ban and it must have been tough on him. “I really do hope he comes back through the pain, and I really hope he does well for the Sharks, from where we can hopefully pick him for the Boks again.
“I know there are a lot of people who don’t feel the same way, but that’s why there was a time period with the ban.”
D’Arcy clearly doesn’t agree which then leads to the obvious question of what would an appropriate response have looked like? Should the Sharks supporters have booed Dyantyi? Should the commentators have grilled the young man – not yet 30-years-old – in the immediate aftermath of the match, raising a transgression committed four years ago? There’s enough bad blood spilt in this sport – although D’Arcy is clearly after more.
The retired Irish midfielder noted that Dyantyi’s is not an isolated case. He name-checked Elton Jantjies and Mahlatse ‘Chiliboy’ Ralepelle as former Boks who had also copped serious suspicions for doping. It should be noted that South African rugby has long been plagued by allegations of substance abuse that has infiltrated all tiers of the pyramid. Doping scandals have rocked schoolboy rugby in the country this year, as well as in 2022, 2020 and 2018.
But this is a rugby problem, not just a South African rugby problem. Last year the former Ireland lock Dan Tuoy was handed a two-year ban for taking an anabolic agent as he fought his way back from injury. In 2020 James Cronin, the Munster prop with 143 caps for his province, was found guilty of taking a substance banned by the World Anti-Doping Agency. He was banned for a month despite it being found that the corticosteroid he ingested came about as a result of a pharmacist’s error. A quick search online shows that Australian, Fijian, English and French players have all been pinned in the past.
But that is beside the point. This is about one young man’s mistake and his subsequent redemption. Rugby teaches us to celebrate the last-gasp triumph, the desperate try-saving tackle in the corner, and the battle for that differential inch on the pitch. Dyantyi’s story, warts and all, encapsulates everything that we should hold sacrosanct in our game.
Dear Oh Dear Oh Dear Derek, what on earth are you drinking and smoking?
Are you reading the posts properly before responding to them with totally irrelevant gibberish?
WHOM amongst us made the sweeping generalisation that ALL the Boks are taking steroids? NOBODY.
ONE player was under discussion with a couple of his compatriots mentioned as serial offenders. The wider issue of steroid abuse in younger age groups was also included but I don't recall anyone accusing ALL SA rugby players of being drug cheats.
Aphiwe was caught with 3 DIFFERENT steroid metabolites in his system. Does that sound like Very Careful Use?
This is a Rugby Forum - not a socio-historic lesson. Why not simply say that the Boks have a genetic advantage?
I feel safe espousing that 90% of rugby fans in this country have had secondary if not tertiary education and it's very plain that the subtext of your original post is that of an embittered man more interested in a speech about ancient history and a few generalist comments on the physical and a deep-seated hatred for England and the English. Why do you live here??
And Derek, don't accuse me of being a SA hater. I spent 4yrs in Afrika. I only went to watch the world cup in 1995 and to stay for a few months afterwards. However, as a friend of the Hewlett family I was in VIP, met Mandela and even attended the final. Joburg was a bit sketchy in places but I loved Durban and Cape Town.
Did the Garden Route - Plett, PE, Jeffrey's Bay, Ostriches, a year in Green Point by the Putt Putt, worked at Carlos O’Brians on Loop and Longhorns in Durban. I've still got friends in Ballito and Umhlanga Rocks.
And Faf is my favourite scrum-half of all time just in front of GG from Oz.
Yes yes - the above isn't all strictly rugby but it's not a diatribe against SA and South Africans.
And then I did 2yrs for the Red Cross in every country from Zim to Kenya building schools, irrigation systems and bore holes for fresh water.
Here’s to all of your sour blouses commenting here. The South African heritage is Holland Germany and French with a few other secondary races in it. The Dutch people are amongst the tallest people in the world. The Germans are also big people. This mixture of races is what gives the South Africans bulk and height. Steroids may build muscle but they do not build bone. Steroids also slow down player’s speed and make them muscle bound unless they are used very carefully. Before the turn of the 1900’s the South African Boers were already bigger than their cruel masters the British Empire. The Brits had better weaponry and supply lines than the Boers and the Boers still hammered them. In the early 1900’s the Springboks were already bigger, stronger and faster than you lot. Were there anabolic steroids on offer then???? A BIG NO!!! So carry on reading your tabloids, articles and listening to your podcasts that are always the most biased, most sour and anti-South African hence the constant pathetic rhetoric that you read and so gullibly take in. The reason for your hate is that most of the time you are beaten by the Boks on the rugby field and even with the most simple army the Boers still gave their British masters a hiding. Food for thought for you miserable people below.
Ridiculous. He’s just the tip of the iceberg with what’s going on in SA. The rugby system pressuring young boys to dope who are still in school are being exposed to all sorts of negative health effects whilst then receiving benefits for muscle gain and retention for the rest of their playing career.
Is it a surprise the springboks are the largest team in world rugby? No sports scientist or nutritionist will say that’s because of biltong and boerewors!
Absolute bullshit. As soon as you take anabolic steroids, the number of myonuclei in your body is artificially elevated for life, give you an unfair advantage over all clean athletes.
Springboks, Awhie, rasie, pack of cheats.
“everything that we should hold sacrosanct in our game.” win at all cost including cheating. Nice one
And as for you Gallan, the author of this piece, you've clearly never tried to play sports at an elite level and dragged your arse out of bed at 6am to run 10km, done a day's work and then hit the gym at 7pm for a weights session. Because if you had - YOU WOULDN'T BE BACKING A BLATANT CHEAT WHO COULDN'T BE BOTHERED. FFS.
I'm all for second chances. We all make mistakes. But cheating while everyone around you is breaking his or her back trying to make the grade is a disgrace. And forgiveness comes after contrition. This joke of a ‘sportsman’ ( the clue is in the word BTW) hasn't the decency to admit that he made a conscious decision to cheat and betray his teammates and coaches. We don't need people with no moral compass and not the first idea of the damage he's done to our glorious sport.
Open arms and forgiveness??
Do me a favour.
Imagine pimping for dopers now. Jesus Christ - do you actually believe this stuff?
You’re asking for sympathy for a guy who hasn’t even admitted his doping and using the article instead to hammer someone for calling this out?
I’m not saying he should be publicly pilloried for it - but he cheated in the most heinous way and has rightly been punished.
Why should everyone just welcome him back with open and loving arms?
Just because you liked him when you interviewed him, mate, doesn’t make you right about this. Sure - ask for sympathy - but don’t attack those who don’t have any for cheaters.
Darcy was a bang average player and like his colleague Matt Williams, a bang average rugby pundit. Pay him no attention and let him slip into irrelevance quietly.
In a sport full of head injuries from powerful collisions, taking steroids is a pretty immoral and dangerous thing to do. If as you say he's not admitted to it then I have no sympathy. Everyone knows before they stick that needle in their ass that if they are caught they will be vilified and he made his decision. If he admits what he did and apologies publicly maybe I'll feel differently.