No smoke without fire?

Not Kurt Weaver


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Based on all these replies, there is an elephant on this thread. or is it a gorillla?
 

L'irlandais

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Not many league refs on this forum, that's all.
Come back Kurt Weaver, all is forgiven! :pepper:
 

Not Kurt Weaver


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Shoulda check that this was league thread since article was about league player. I had a teammate, a weightlifter, who used steroids in the late 80's

I'm sure it is widespread as player suggested. He may be the Jose Consaceo of rugby. He was whistleblower in baseball steroid era.

No one likes to talk about in rugby, especially during the cup.
 

OB..


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http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/ru...ritain-and-its-doping-problem-is-growing.html

"A look at the [UK Anti-Doping’s] sanction list reveals why. Rugby is the dirtiest sport in Britain. Of the 47 people listed on the banned list, 16 are from rugby union and 12 from rugby league. The two codes comprise 81 per cent of the bans announced this year by UKAD."
Are the figures evidence that doping is more rife, or that rugby is more assiduous in trying to root it out?
 

4eyesbetter


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Impossible to answer the question without a more thorough discussion of the testing regime. Who gets tested, what for, and how often?
 

Rich_NL

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Are the figures evidence that doping is more rife, or that rugby is more assiduous in trying to root it out?

Yes, or both :)

The article goes into that question. My impression is that rugby these days has a "size counts" culture that was absent 20 years ago, especially with teens looking to the professional athletes playing the top level game. Drug use doesn't have the stigma it used to have, and there are a lot of (legal) supplements being used - I'd honestly be surprised if there weren't more incentive to use in rugby than many other sports. And there's evidence in France that it's an issue at the top level too.

That said, as far as I can tell there is a willingness among the organising bodies to tackle things that is distinctly absent in certain other organisations. It may be the combination that leads to the high rates of detected offences - "professional" motivations clashing with "amateur" (in the best sense) aspirations.
 

love_l

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i did not get any of the massages on this topic ! what's an elephant ?!
 

Not Kurt Weaver


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If you say there is an elephant in the room, you mean that there is an obvious problem or difficult situation that people do not want to talk about
 
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