Richard Moore - Rugby codes escape doping microscope

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 au...