Davies, who plays for Newport High School Old Boys, a member club of the WRU, failed and then refused to submit to sample collection on two separate occasions in May 2014. On 14 May, Davies failed to provide a sample when UKAD attempted to test at the player’s home address. On 20 May, UKAD returned to his home address for testing purposes and Davies refused to provide a sample.
The player is banned from all competition from 14 June 2014 until midnight on 13 June 2016. The full written decision can be found under current rule violations.
UKAD Director of Legal Graham Arthur said: “To fail to comply with sample collection is a serious violation of the anti-doping rules. Testing remains integral to our work and the consequences of failing to provide a sample warrant sufficiently stiff penalties.
“As the National Anti-Doping Panel stated, Mr Davies’ status as an amateur has no relevance to the interpretation and application of the anti-doping rules. The message to clean athletes is that when anti-doping authorities request a sample, athletes need to do everything they can to cooperate. Under the 2015 World Anti-Doping Code, refusal or failure to comply with the anti-doping process will result in a four-year ban.”
A Welsh Rugby Union spokesperson said, “The Welsh Rugby Union takes anti-doping offences very seriously and condemns any violation of anti-doping rule violations. We work closely with UKAD, fully adhere to their policies and support them with their procedures.
“The prohibited list is circulated regularly and can be found, along with the full regulations, doping control procedures and the IRB’s online educational programme (www.irbkeeprugbyclean.com ) on www.wru.co.uk/antidoping.
‘”Testing is carried out at international, professional and semi-professional matches and training. Out of Competition Testing occurs at amateur level if UKAD receive intelligence of a player committing an Anti-Doping Rule Violation. We encourage anyone who has any intelligence of this taking place to speak out and call the UKAD Report Doping in Sport number – tel 0800 032 2332 or go to www.reportdoping.com
“The new World Anti-Doping Code comes into effect on 1 January 2015, which will include new Anti-Doping Rule Violations and tougher sanctions with bans of up to four years for cheating involving serious doping substances and refusal or evading sample collection.
“To support the introduction of the new code, the Welsh Rugby Union will highlight the issue of anti-doping through a publicity campaign during the autumn in order to inform and educate players and support staff of the concerns and to ensure all players have the right to compete in rugby knowing that they, and their competitors are clean.”
