CAPE TOWN - Former Springbok and Sharks hooker Chiliboy Ralepelle has been handed an eight-year ban after testing positive for a banned substance in January last year.
Ralepelle tested positive for banned anabolic substance Zeranol during an out-of-competition test at Kings Park. His A-sample urine tested positive, and he then exercised the right to have his B-sample tested.
The 33-year-old hooker has been given a 21-day period in which to appeal the ban.
Ralepelle also has a previous doping conviction. In 2015, in France, he was banned from sport for two years after failing an out-of-competition doping test taken the year before, when he was recovering from an operation on a knee injury he had sustained while playing for Toulouse against Biarritz.
In 2010, Ralepelle and fellow Springbok Bjorn Basson also tested positive for the stimulant methylhexanamine while on tour in Edinburgh, but were found to not be at fault, as the substance was apparently contained in Springbok-approved supplements.