Aphiwe Dyantyi faces big battle to be on top again … but it’s all in his hands

Once one of the most promising prospects in South African rugby, Aphiwe Dyantyi will now get an opportunity to try and salvage what was expected to be a glittering career when he links up with the Sharks in Durban after a four year drugs ban.

Dyantyi’s rise in rugby was a fairy tale story, with him unable to even represent his school’s first team and playing no provincial age group rugby during his school days.

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But after attending the University of Johannesburg and giving rugby another crack, Dyantyi burst onto the scene during the Varsity Cup in 2016, playing on the wing and was rewarded with a Lions contract.

From there Dyantyi went from strength to strength, representing the Lions in the SuperSport Rugby Challenge and Currie Cup in 2017, before making his Super Rugby debut in 2018 where he put in some sparkling performances and caught the eye of Springbok coach Rassie Erasmus.

This saw him selected for the national side for their incoming tour against England in July 2018, with him making a scoring debut in a thrilling first Test that ended in a 42-39 win to the Boks and an eventual 2-1 series win.

Dyantyi continued to sparkle over the 2018 international season, starring for the Boks in the Rugby Championship and on their End of Year Tour.

Breakthrough player

His fantastic performances saw him end the year with six tries from 13 games and saw him rewarded by World Rugby by being named Breakthrough Player of the Year.

The stars were thus aligned for a long and storied career for Dynatyi, with him expected to be a key cog in the Boks’ 2019 World Cup plans.

But that all came crashing down in July 2019 when he tested positive for metandienone, methyltestosterone and LGD-4033, which are all on the World Anti-Doping Agency’s banned substances list, and after his ‘B’ sample tested positive as well he was handed a four year ban.

Dynatyi is now 28, turning 29 in August, and will be making his return to top class rugby in the 2023/24 season with the Sharks in the United Rugby Championship and Challenge Cup competitions.

Rising stars

The question now is whether he can reach the heights that he once did and reignite what was supposed to be a brilliant career.

He definitely still has a chance to become a top player in franchise rugby again, but with his advanced age and the amazing up-and-coming young talent in the country, like Canan Moodie and Kurt-Lee Arendse coming through, any further Bok aspirations may have sailed for the former Lions man.

The Sharks and Bok boss Rassie Erasmus though have both spoken about believing in “second chances”, so it is now up to Dyantyi to show what he is made of if he hopes to pull on a Bok jersey again.