Welsh player's doping offence ban

A semi-professional Welsh Premiership rugby player is serving a two-year ban for not taking part in a doping test.

Ebbw Vale wing Nathan Jones failed to produce a urine sample after they lost a Welsh Premiership game 41-7 at Neath on Saturday, 26 September 2009.

The 22-year-old was banned at a hearing in March, lost an appeal a month later and cannot return until March 2012.

Jones played two seasons for Swansea before joining the Steelmen, where he also spent around two years.

In his appeal Jones stated he was also under time pressure to travel to Bristol where he was to help his contractor father lay concrete screed at a building project.

The appeal panel heard the firm could have lost around £5,000 had they failed to complete the work.

Jones said that as the situation unfolded team manager Alan Evans summoned Ebbw Vale director of rugby Steve Lewis, a former Welsh Rugby Union chief executive, who the player looked up to due to his status in the game.

"Mr Lewis said I should leave and go to work," stated Jones. "I felt confident to leave for work and that there would be no repercussions as Mr Lewis is a person who I look up to... I felt that his opinion had to be right.

The principle of personal responsibility and strict liability which underpin the World anti-doping code and the UK anti-doping regulations will sometimes result in harsh consequences appeal panel members

"This took any doubt out of my mind, not to leave, as I felt that no one would have any any better knowledge than him in this matter."

However, by a two-to-one majority, the appeal panel ruled Lewis' advice was not a compelling reason to uphold Jones' appeal.

The panel members who voted against Jones' appeal ruled: "The intervention of Mr Lewis notwithstanding, the fact is that the player left the Doping Control Station (DCS) because he felt he had to go to work.

"In so concluding we accept that the player's decision was influenced by Mr Lewis, whose advice he preferred over that of the Doping Control Officers."

Those two panel members added: "It would appear that neither the player nor Mr Lewis, who the player relied on for advice, were sufficiently acquainted with the applicable requirements of the UK anti-doping regulations (UKADR).

"The principle of personal responsibility and strict liability which underpin the World anti-doping code and the UKADR will sometimes result in harsh consequences, taking account of all the circumstances, and this is such a case."

Read the full UK Anti-Doping ruling here

The same panel members went on: "The player's lack of anti-doping education and, for that matter, that of some of the other individuals involved in the events that occurred at the DCS, is a regrettable feature of this case.

"It underscores the need for better efforts to ensure knowledge and understanding of anti-doping rules at all levels of sport."

The panel member who voted to back Jones' appeal on the grounds the circumstances were "truly exceptional" stated: "The role played by Steve Lewis... should be considered.

"When a junior rugby player confronted for the first time by a DCO is advised by a very senior official in Welsh rugby to leave the ground and travel to Bristol without providing a urine sample, it is difficult to ignore the bearing this would have had on the player's decision to leave, given the enormous pressures resulting from time commitments in Bristol.

"It is accepted, however, that under the code, it is the player's responsibility alone to acquaint himself with all the requirements of the UKADR."

Ebbw Vale were relegated from the Welsh Premiership at the end of last season.