Ex-Hunslet player Kaye given four-year doping ban

League 1 Hunslet play in the third tier of English rugby league

Former Hunslet player Rowland Kaye has been banned from sport for four years after being found guilty of steroid use.

The 23-year-old was tested at Hunslet training shortly after joining the club from West Wales Raiders.

He was told of the positive test in March 2022 and provisionally banned.

On 20 April 2022, the second-rower admitted the violation but claimed that his use of the drug was unintentional.

On the same day, Hunslet announced that Welshman Kaye had asked the club to cancel his contract for "personal reasons", a request that was granted.

The case was subsequently heard by an independent tribunal of the National Anti-Doping Panel and in January 2023 he was given a four-year ban from all sport.

Kaye contested that verdict but in April an appeal tribunal found the player "had been unable to prove how the prohibited substance had entered his system or prove that ingestion of the prohibited substance was not intentional".

That meant the original ban will remain in place and will expire in March 2026.

UKAD's interim director of operations Hamish Coffey said: "Under the UK Anti-Doping rules, strict liability means an athlete is solely responsible for what goes into their body.

"It is down to the athlete to prove how the substance got into their system. Supplements are never 100% risk-free and UKAD advises caution when using them in sport.

"Athletes who break the anti-doping rules risk facing a lengthy ban from sport."

The Rugby Football League added: "We support UKAD in their determination to ensure that sport is clean, and therefore in their testing programme in and out of competition, of part-time as well as full-time players.

"This is another example of how strict liability places responsibility on all athletes in these matters, and the serious repercussions of a positive test."