Ntshiwe and Cherry appeared before the WRB judicial committee accompanied by their coach, Sean Irish in April 2016. The players were alleged to have committed separate anti-doping rule violations as a result of analytical findings for the presence of the specified substance oxilofrine (methylsynephrine). Officers from the South Africa Institute of Drug Free Sport (SAIDS) took urine samples from the two players.
The samples were sent to the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) accredited laboratory in Lausanne, Switzerland. Separate analysis of each sample revealed the presence of oxilofrine.