The South African Rugby Union has given their full support to the efforts of Bulls and Springbok loose forward Pedrie Wannenburg to 'clean up his act', following his admission that he used cocaine and ecstasy, as well as also abusing alcohol.

SA rugby was rocked by the revelations on Monday, after Wannenburg - who has 98 Super Rugby caps for the Bulls and 20 Test caps for the Boks to his credit - was exposed when video was forwarded to his employers, the Blue Bulls Rugby Union (BBRU).

Reacting the news of Wannenburg's indiscretions, which follows on the recreational drug scandal that rocked English Premiership club Bath last year, SARU Chief Executive Johan Prinsloo said on Monday that there will be no ban for Wannenburg.

"At times like these people need support not condemnation," Prinsloo told iafrica.com.

"Pedrie has taken the critical first step of acknowledging these very serious problems and with the support of the Blue Bulls we trust he will overcome them.

"Rugby and sport has no place for drug users and we condemn the act. But we'd be naive if we pretended players were not occasionally drawn into this kind of dangerous lifestyle.

"At the moment though, Pedrie and the Bulls have only our support has he tries to put his life back together again."

Ismail Jakoet, the Saru Medical Chief, confirmed that according to the World Anti Doping Agency (WADA) code, admission of drug use does not constitute an offence.

Jakoet, who is a member of both WADA and the International Rugby Board (IRB) Anti Doping Commission, he is free to continue playing.

"From an anti-doping point of view there's nothing that can be done," Jakoet told iafrica.com, adding: "Anything else [recreational drug use] does not fall in my jurisdiction - this is outside the anti-doping ambit."

Wannenburg has been cleared to continue his career, because he has not failed a drug test and only admitted to having a drug problem.

This is in contrast to the Bath scandal, where South African-born England prop Matt Stevens failed a drug test after Bath's Heineken Cup match against Glasgow.

Stevens was not just withdrawn from the England Six Nations squad for the 2009 tournament and suspended by Bath RFC, he was also banned for two years in February after testing positive for cocaine.

In March Stevens announced that he was quitting the club before they sacked him.

However, the Bath scandal did not end there. Several players, including Wallaby lock Justin Harrison, were caught up in a second drug scandal in May.

Harrison, Andrew Higgins, Alex Crockett and Michael Lipman were implicated in a end-of-season party story - which ultimately led to them all being summoned to a club drug test - which none of them arrived for.

The saga that followed was a long and complicated one but, aside from Harrison who admitted to using cocaine, it was deemed that, while they could not prove drug use, the trio of Higgins, Lipman and Crockett were guilty of failing to arrive for a required drugs test and banned for nine months.

All three maintain their innocence and, with the exception of Higgins, plan on returning to the game as soon as possible. Crockett in fact has already agreed a deal with Bristol and will join up with them when his ban is officially ends in March.

Harrison, who joined up with the Brumbies in Australia, will resume his Super Rugby career when his ban expires later this month.