Richard Moore: Test for alcohol is common sense

OF THE many confusing aspects concerning the Scott MacLeod case of non-doping, one of the most puzzling is – as the player himself said – that it wasn't determined much earlier that alcohol could be a cause of his high level of testosterone.

In what might be called the 'Landis defence' – after the cyclist Floyd Landis claimed that his positive test for testosterone during the 2006 Tour de France owed to his consumption of whisky the night before – you would think this would be a basic procedure; and, in the case of a rugby player, a common sense one.

Because what MacLeod's story also demonstrates is that rugby's drinking culture remains ingrained, even at international level.

MacLeod, celebrating the news that he was to become a father, drank alcohol over a seven-hour period, and then eight hours later submitted a urine sample to the dope testers. Nine days later, he and the players who joined him on the night out were on Scotland duty for the Six Nations opener against France.

I have observed this kind of 'preparation' first hand. During the 2006 Six Nations campaign I witnessed half the Scotland team, including the captain, enjoy a full-on session in an Edinburgh bar one evening. It was four nights after their heroic 18-12 victory over England at Murrayfield, which followed their defeat of France. It was also just ten days before they were due to face Ireland.

At that point, it was shaping up to be a phenomenal season, one that could end with the Six Nations championship – though it wasn't over. Yet that evening, as bottles of tequila were bought at the bar and then downed at the table, and as one or two players puffed away on cigarettes (this was less than a month before the smoking ban), it was obvious that, far from thinking about the Ireland game, our boys were still intent on celebrating the England one that had just past.

The only player to sit out the drinking games was the tee-total Chris Paterson, who looked as bemused as some of the other witnesses to this revelry, for whom there was an inevitability about the defeat to Ireland that followed ten days later. A potentially great season became one that could only be called promising.

Noble gesture from sponsor

AS WINTER kicks in, the country's top giant slalom skier Andy Noble can celebrate a credit crunch busting sponsorship deal. Whiteburn Projects, the Edinburgh-based development and investment group, has decided to complement its sponsorship of the Phat corporate skiing challenge with backing for Noble, the 24-year-old from Edinburgh.

Noble's season started well, with sixth in a Europa Cup in the Netherlands. The race was held on an artificial slope, four times the length of the one at Braehead, in Landgraaf. Having missed almost the whole of last season with injury, Noble is on the World Cup team with Finlay Mickel and the Baxter brothers, Alain and Noel. As for Whiteburn's decision to sponsor him, director John Shepherd explains: "The directors have always been keen skiers, and after last year's inaugural Phat Challenge in Chamonix we were keen to find ways of using this to raise support for the British competitive ski effort. Sponsoring Andy fits perfectly and cements Whiteburn's commitment to supporting and promoting in a small way the Olympic and World Cup talent of the future."

Noble is back in competitive action today, racing slalom and GS at the American Cup in Loveland, Colorado.

Drug testing takes to piste

MINUTES from meetings of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) reveal that football is not the only sport concerned about the 'whereabouts' requirement of the Anti-Doping Code.

One board member noted that "there would be fun with Alpine skiing, because the athletes were always on the course during the times stated (for dope testing]." He admitted that he was "already picturing the athletes going down the course at 150kph (90mph], with the (drug testers] trying to keep up behind them!"

The chairman responded that the drug testers would "need to learn to be very good skiers!"

They sound like a right laugh, these WADA meetings.

Top coach a Burley boy

AS THE British cycling team almost cleaned up at last week's Sports Journalists' Association annual awards, one table could look on with particular pride. Several of the coaches were in attendance, including Matt Parker, the men's endurance coach who masterminded Bradley Wiggins' victory in the pursuit, as well as the world record and gold-winning ride of the team pursuit squad.

The name may be vaguely familiar to followers of Scottish First Division football in the 1990s, and especially to supporters of Ayr United – because Parker played for the side under George Burley.

Though very modest about his footballing ability, Parker must have been decent, because he was a regular in the first team, playing in midfield and latterly as a central defender.

The British cycling team has been praised for its scientific approach to training, with Parker, who took a sports science degree following his playing career, at the vanguard. Is there anything that he picked up while at Ayr United? With a wry smile, he replied: "We used to run up a lot of sand dunes."