Rugby union applying a don’t ask, don’t tell, approach to performance enhancing drugs

It is the kind of stuff that you hear about rugby players whenever a story like this emerges: this is the tip of the iceberg, it’s rampant in rugby, they’re all juiced to the gills, aren’t they?

My natural inclination is to say: no, they aren’t. Before writing this, I made a few phone calls to different trusted people who are, or have been, right in the thick of rugby clubs, to re-educate myself - no names, no quotes, but what should I know? - and my position hasn’t dramatically changed as a result.

Suspicion inevitably clings to the kind of world-class power athletes we’ll be watching in this World Cup. When I’ve suggested in the past that this may be unfair, the mailbox fills quite quickly with a battery of correspondents informing me, again, that doping in rugby is rampant, the gills are fully juiced, etc. Yet whenever I’ve then replied saying, “Look, this is fascinating, you seem to know so much. What information do you have? Please share,” those loud know-all voices have gone suddenly silent.

Beyond the chatter, what we know is that doping is cultural. On the same day that Webb tested positive, Elton Jantjies, the Springbok No 10, did too. On the eve of the previous World Cup, in 2019, another Springbok dropped out with a positive test. It is at schoolboy level that there is a problem; every year at Craven Week, the big annual South African schoolboy festival, a number of boys test positive. In 2018, there were six of them.

Five years ago there was a spate of positives from south Wales, though this was interesting: they weren’t frontline, full-time professionals. Rather, it was amateurs, semi-professionals, some of them young men chasing sculpted physiques rather than rugby careers.

Nevertheless, this contributes to a negative impression about rugby and dopers. The UK Anti-Doping website shows 11 rugby union players serving bans (six English, three Welsh, two Scots) which is more than any other sport, apart from rugby league. Yet, again, these are all amateurs; the only one you may have heard of is Chris Mayor, the former Sale Sharks, Northampton Saints and Wasps centre, who was busted when attempting to buy HGH. He was 36, playing lower league rugby, and said that he was trying to procure the HGH as a painkiller for his father’s knee.

Believe what you will, but this has zero to do with the World Cup.

What is impressive is the amount of intelligence that goes into some of these doping cases. Which makes you wonder: if that is the case for the semi-pro game, why has there been no such success catching the big boys at the top?

The obvious answer is that the Mayors of this world are the low-hanging fruit. If there are professional rugby players doping - and of course there are - then they are going to be more professional and better informed about how they manage it. They will know about micro-dosing and how long a negative sample may remain in the urine or the blood.

Part of the reason why Webb’s positive test was so unusual is that HGH stays in the system for such a short period of time. The “glow time” - the timespan in which you remain positive - is a maximum of 12 hours.

The answer, then, is to test a lot. However, testing is expensive and therefore limited. The latest year of collated figures, 2021-22, shows that there were 160 tests of England international players. That is about four times each a year. In the Gallagher Premiership, there were 254 tests, which suggests that many top-flight players weren’t even tested once.

Encouragingly, of all those tests carried out, 65 per cent were out of competition. However, it is only the top players in the World Rugby whereabouts pool who have to provide the full details of where they will be on holiday and where they can be found for testing every day.

If you then add in further testing by World Rugby, an England player could reasonably have expected to be tested out of competition four or five times in the past year. That must be a deterrent, though maybe not if you know what you are doing.

The Webb story, meanwhile, is still young. He is waiting to see if his B-sample confirms the findings of the first test. However, his case must be drilled into. If he is found guilty of an offence, the source of his HGH is of paramount importance. It is a proper smoking gun.

Anyone who believes that there are no dopers at this World Cup is kidding themselves. There will always be one-offs and shortcut takers.

But does rugby have a doping problem? That is the exact question that Alan Gilpin, the World Rugby chief executive, was asked at a pre-tournament press conference on Monday. The answer he gave was: “I think the evidence suggests no.”

I think the evidence remains incomplete. We are scratching at the surface.

IF WE WANT PACIFIC ISLANDS TO COMPETE, REDUCE SUBSTITUTIONS

Rugby and substitutions: how many should we be allowed to use? The debate has rumbled for a few years that eight is too many, because in the last quarter of games, when players tire, space opens up which equals more line breaks, which in turn makes for a better spectacle. Conversely, eight replacements mean fewer tired players, less space, and a poorer spectacle.

While we are all applauding the Pacific Island sides and hoping that they may be properly competitive at this World Cup, here is another reason for limiting the number of replacements. With the change of the eligibility rules, Fiji, Tonga and Samoa can all now just about stitch together a team that is strong from 1 to 15. However, they still lack the strength in depth to go 1 to 23. They certainly cannot do a South Africa and bring on seven international-calibre forwards from the bench.

If we really want these countries to compete, we should reduce the number of replacements. Make the World Cup a contest between the best teams, not the nations with the best strength in depth.

WHY I’VE OWED DAN COLE AN APOLOGY SINCE 2019

To Dan Cole, an apology. Ever since the 2019 Rugby World Cup final, when the England scrum got mashed by the Springboks and Cole was made to suffer by Tendai Mtawarira, the idea has taken root that Cole was responsible. He came on for Kyle Sinckler (concussion) in the third minute, the scrum then went backwards. Cole was therefore the problem. At least, that is how I read it at the time and I repeated it in print at the start of this week.

But then a former, highly respected international prop got in touch and told me this was wrong. And so I checked with one of the most respected scrum coaches in the world - and he said I was wrong, too.

Here are the facts. In the final, as per the quarters and semi-final, Eddie Jones started with Sinckler at tight head and Mako Vunipola at loose head, his two all-court props. On the bench were his two foremost scrummagers: Cole and Joe Marler. A front row is a partnership. When Marler came on for Vunipola in the second half and held up the loose head side of the scrum, suddenly Cole started to hold his own better on the tight head. Cole hadn’t been able to gain parity on his own, but with Marler there, he was OK.

Jones has since said that he should have picked Marler to start - which is correct. But hindsight suggests that the expert call, with the scrum purely in mind, would have been to start Marler and Cole together.

So four years on, maybe the smarter scrummaging brains have now recognised this, because Cole is now in England’s starting line-up to play Argentina. They haven’t gone the whole way though - Marler is still on the bench.

HOMES FROM HOME WITH FAMILIES AND FANS

Professional rugby players, as with other sports, are increasingly losing the connection with their fans, the England team in particular. So here is a solution: before they leave for the next World Cup, instead of the luxury saturation experience of five-star hotels, why not billet them each for a couple of nights with local rugby fans and their families. Imagine the love they’d get, the number of people they’d meet, the brief (but welcome?) change of headspace.

That’s ridiculous, you say. Could never happen. But actually, it did.

At the 1987 World Cup, before the quarter-finals - yes, actually during the World Cup - the All Blacks were all dispatched for two nights with local farmers and their families. And you know what, they loved it.

Amazing, isn’t it? I had no idea about that until I listened to the excellent How To Win A World Cup podcast series by my colleague Will Kelleher. England should listen to it and start planning accordingly.

This article originally appeared in The Times and has been reproduced with permission

Originally published as Rugby union applying a don’t ask, don’t tell, approach to performance enhancing drugs