Richard Moore - Rugby codes escape doping microscope

Published on Sunday 20 April 2008 23:06

OMERTA, they call it, or a conspiracy of silence. A version of this code, which has operated in cycling for years, may also exist in rugby, if the latest statistics from UK Sport are any indication. These suggest that the two rugby codes have a combined total of doping cases into three figures over the past five years: 110 in total throughout Britain, 78 of which have resulted in a sanction against the offender.

Of course, any suggestion that rugby might have a drugs problem tends to be dismissed by the rugby community. The reaction to the Scott MacLeod case – when the Scotland lock mistakenly used an asthma inhaler he had not declared to the drug-testing authorities – was typical of a community happy to remain blissfully ignorant.

All agreed that MacLeod wasn't guilty of using drugs to enhance performance, but the very suggestion any rugby player might do so provoked a response that bordered, in some cases, on hysterical.

Some suggest that rugby and football – there have been 38 doping convictions in British football in the last five years – conduct more testing than most other sports. Which is true; but it misses the point. The point being that, regardless of how many tests have been carried out in total, 78 is a lot of doping offences – it breaks down as 48 in rugby union, 30 in rugby league.

Meanwhile, the spotlight falls on the likes of Christine Ohuruogu – guilty of a doping offence for missing three out-of-competition tests, but no more guilty, and arguably less culpable, than many of those 78 rugby players, about whom there has been barely a word in the media.

It is something Dave Collins, UK Athletics performance director, is irritated by. He was interested to hear the figures above, though reluctant to criticise other sports. "My primary concern is always to fight drug use within sport and I won't be happy until we have no positive drug tests within athletics," says Collins, himself a former rugby player. "I am not in the business of trying to score points off other sports. We are all in this together, and British sport leads the world in drug testing.

"But I would have to say it is extremely frustrating to see the publicity generated by, say, the Christine Ohuruogu case compared with the comparable cases and suspensions in other sports. Public perception is everything and I very much welcome the collating and publicising of any hard facts which will help the sporting public see the bigger picture for what it is. We don't have to hide from the facts. They are there to help us and tell what is happening."

For the record: in the five-year period during which 78 rugby players have been disciplined for doping offences, only four track and field athletes have been sanctioned. As Collins suggests, the public perception does seem to be at odds with the facts.

Fenn commits to Scotland

HOW'S this for quick work. Eight days ago, 17-year old Andrew Fenn maintained the outstanding sequence of results by Britain's cyclists, winning the junior edition of the world's toughest one-day road race, Paris-Roubaix.

In a post-race interview, Fenn, asked about his background, said: "I was born in Birmingham, brought up in Kent, but my family's Scottish." On hearing this, the ears of Alasdair MacLennan, Scottish Cycling's performance director, twitched. Within hours he was on the phone to Fenn, to ask whether he might be interested in representing Scotland.

"Yes," said Fenn. His mother, a proud Glaswegian – his grandparents, extended family and great grandmother still live there – was particularly enthusiastic.

"We've already talked about me riding for Scotland," said Fenn, "but I wasn't sure who to talk to."

The long and short of it was that, within 24 hours of Fenn winning the race known as the Hell of the North, he had committed his future to Scotland.

MacLennan is delighted. Such is Fenn's potential that, even though he will still only be 20, he may pull on the blue jersey for the 2010 Commonwealth Games in New Delhi.

A right Royal cash crisis

BBC Scotland's Pacific Quay headquarters in Glasgow hosted last week's Scottish Olympic Gold Ball, attended by the Princess Royal, Lord Colin Moynihan, the BOA chairman, and 20 Scottish Olympians, spanning 56 years of Games.

It was a fundraising exercise, with the BOA, which receives no government or lottery backing, frantically engaged in efforts to raise the 18,000 it will cost them to send each athlete to Beijing, not to mention the 13,000 it costs to send a horse; the 18,000 to send a rowing boat; and 70,000 to send a sailing boat. Ironically, their task has been made more difficult as a consequence of London winning the right to stage the 2012 Olympics; London 2012 own the Olympic sponsorship rights, so the BOA is more reliant than ever on fundraising income.

These are testing times, as acknowledged by the Princess Royal, who explained that the 18,000 spent on each athlete includes an array of kit and clothing. Unlike the old days, she added, when athletes were supplied with "one top, a pair of shorts, one pair of shoes… and a sleeping bag."

Later, she was seen approaching Helen Gordon, Scotland's bronze medal-winning swimmer at the 1952 Helsinki Olympics. Laughing, Gordon explained that the Princess Royal seemed concerned that she might have caused offence, and was keen to clarify she "was only joking about the sleeping bag."