BACK row forward Bevan Jay has been given a four-year suspension after failing a drugs test when training with Ebbw Vale.

Jay, who played for Penallta and Newbridge after being part of the Dragons age-grade set-up, played for then Premiership Ebbw on permit in the 2022/23 and then signed a permanent deal last summer.

However, on July 11, 2023 UKAD testers visited the Steelmen after a training session and Jay’s sample contained a banned substance.

“Analysis of Mr Jay’s sample confirmed the presence of ostarine, a SARM (selective androgen receptor modulator) which is designed to have similar effects to testosterone,” read a UKAD statement.

“Ostarine is a non-Specified Substance that is banned in sport at all times under the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) Prohibited List. “ The statement said that Jay was notified and admitted the anti-doping rule violation but alleged the ostarine came to be in his system by way of a contaminated supplement and the case was referred to the independent National Anti-Doping Panel.

“Following the exchange of evidence and submissions, the matter was heard before a tribunal of the NADP,” continued the UKAD statement.

“During those proceedings, Mr Jay accepted that he could not prove how the prohibited substance came to be in his system, but asserted that he believed one of the supplements he had taken prior to providing the sample was contaminated.

“Mr Jay adduced no independent evidence to support his contamination theory. The NADP tribunal concluded that Mr Jay’s contaminated supplement theory did not withstand scrutiny and ‘amounted to no more than speculation about how ostarine came to be present in his system’.

“Given Mr Jay was unable to establish the source of ostarine in his sample, the NADP tribunal was unable to reduce the applicable period of ineligibility prescribed in the rules and imposed a four-year ban from sport on Mr Jay.”

The suspension will expire in three years on August 15, 2027 as the back rower was provisionally suspended last summer.