With the Olympics & Tour de France bringing drug-taking back to the headlines, is rugby doing enough? asks @nkeegan7...
Welcome to blog number 4, it’s got twice the amount of number 2 in it.
I thought in this one I would look at performance enhancing drugs and just asking questions about whether they are or are not used in rugby.
Before we kick off, I am not accusing anyone of taking anything. I am only asking questions and hopefully providing some banter for the pub when you are using your own performance enhancing drug – Guinness.
According to Wikipedia a p.e.d is determined as: Performance-enhancing drugs are substances used by people to improve their performance in the sports in which they engage. The term may also refer to drugs used by military personnel to enhance combat performance
Steroids are probably the most commonly used p.e.d. When bodybuilders take steroids it is for aesthetic purposes. It overloads the muscle, making it look like an inflated balloon. In sports this is not why steroids and other p.e.d’s are taken. It is taken for recovery purposes. When the fibres in the muscle are torn during training or a heavy gym session, it takes time for these fibres to repair themselves. Steroids speeds this process up so the person can get back on the pitch or back into the gym. The side effects are numerous. Aside from the health issues, it makes you Bigger, Stronger, Faster (also the name of a great documentary on the subject).
The above is certainly open to correction but I think it is fairly close without getting into diagrams of the cell, which just reminds me of an X-Men film.
Professional rugby is a tested sport, and there are very few cases of people being caught taking banned substances. That is on the professional level. The cost to test every club player on the amateur level is too high, so it is not done. Let’s concentrate on the professionals first.
The IRB has a handbook dealing with this topic, how often they test and what they test for. This is all well thought out and I assume (although you know the old saying) well carried out. There are ways of getting out of some of these tests, for example, if you are asked to provide a sample you can delay giving the sample to fulfil media commitments, team meetings, take an ice bath and a few others which take place behind closed doors. Plenty of time to put something else in your system. This does not sit right with me, the possibility of tampering with a sample if far too high. Every professional sportsperson in every sport is looking for the edge. When it is drilled into you from an early age that winning is the only thing, you may do anything to win.
Another alarming aspect of the IRB handbook is that they have a TUE (therapeutic use exemption) clause which means (quoted from the handbook)
A TUE provides a Player with authorization to use a Prohibited Substance or Method to treat a legitimate medical condition/illness whilst continuing to play Rugby. Players with a documented medical condition requiring the use of a Prohibited Substance or Method are required to obtain a Therapeutic Use Exemption (TUE). Without a TUE, Players risk committing an Anti-Doping Rule Violation, an offence that may result in a sanction regardless of the medical Circumstances.
In mixed martial arts and boxing this is ruining the sport. Athletes go to their doctors saying their testosterone levels are low, the doc then gives them a shot of testosterone with the intention to bring them to the normal levels, and this is sometimes abused for an advantage. Also, one of the main reasons levels are low at a young age, is abuse in formative years of development.
Again I am not saying this is a routine amongst rugby players, I am saying that they have a way of taking steroids allowed by the IRB.
On the amateur club level, I have played against people who are on steroids. And a lot of them! I have been around the drug in my formative years as a professional wrestler. There is a lot of it in that ‘sport’. I understand that rugby attracts a certain genetic type, thick bones / neck etc. When the player is taking the drug you can see it in their waterlogged faces and other tell tale signs. The professional players have all the care and attention they need to recover and be healthy. The amateur player has limited knowledge and could be doing some serious harm to themselves. When we see the big tackles the players make, we want to make the same tackles. We have to go to work in the morning, the pros don’t.
Back to the pros, the IRB handbook leaves far too many gaps for my liking. Here is a link; have a quick read through it and see for yourselves. The sport has to be 100% clean and transparent.
Look, let’s not be naïve here. The human body, no matter how well trained, cannot do what some of the players have been expected to do for the last 51 weeks. All I am pointing out is that when you put a few factors together, the long season, the repeated injuries to heavily muscled areas and just look at some of the heads on the lads, is that we should just ask some questions of our players.
Until next week, if there is a next week!
keego (@nkeegan): Newbie blogger, former professional wrestler, sometime attempted rugby player (@TheThirsty3rds), professional procrastinator and attempted musician with a fondness for long walks on the bar, tea and the couch. Opinionated Leinster fan and constant gardener.
© JL Pagano 2012
