Moustache Cream Results in Positive Steroid Test for Japanese Rugby Player

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A Japanese rugby player probably wishes he had used anabolic steroids to enhance his performance, much like other athletes who use steroids, after it was revealed that his desperate desire for a moustache was the cause of a failed steroid test. Ryohei Yamanaka had been planning on representing Japan in the 2011 Rugby World Cup in New Zealand in September.

Ryohei Yamanaka apologized to his fans on Twitter for his embarrassing positive steroid test but he want to assure them that it was not a “hair growth tonic which helps grow hair on the head”.

“I am sorry for stirring up all the fuss,” Yamanaka, a former Waseda University vice-captain, said on the micro-blogging website Twitter after the reports came out. He did not directly mention the doping test.

“It was not a hair growth tonic which helps grow hair on the head,” he added.

The coach of the Japan Brave Blossoms World Cup team went even further to clarify what type of hair growth tonic was used by the Japanese rugby player. Coach John Kirwan was critical of Yamanaka. Kirwan lamented that the rugby player had made the “decision to make himself unavailable” for Japan in the World Cup. Kirwan scoffed at the use of a cream to grow a moustache.

“He’s got a hair-growth cream to try and grow a ‘mo’ (moustache),” All Black great Kirwan said. “Apparently he’s done that and it had a steroid in it and he didn’t know.

“Which is sad because he’ll get banned for sure. It threw our plans a wee bit out because ideally for the World Cup you need to take three (flyhalfs).” […]

“He’ll be lucky if gets six months,” said Kirwan. “He’ll probably get two years.

“I spoke to him at the time. I don’t think he was aware of the severity of it. We spent 24 hours trying to find out what he had taken.

“It was a little tube of hair-growth cream. He just didn’t think. Apparently he has failed the (B sample) too. From what I gather he’s innocent but (the IRB) take a dim view.”

The Kobe Kobelco Steelers player tested positive during the first game of the HSBC Asian Five Nations tournament. The International Rugby Board (IRB) is expected to ban Yamanaka for six months to two years due to his hair growth experimentation.