[Closed] Does Rugby Union Have A Drugs Issue?

I think most sports are still at the stage cycling was 10 years ago, still keeping the omerta, and attacking the messenger, at both an administrative level and among the competitors.

No, no, it's all down to "Professionalism"

😆

Yes! If they'd all skin up a bit more there would be none of this running around being aggressive.

Richie McCaw was clearly trippin' on Sunday. But I don't think that is what you mean.

No, theres no drug problem here sir, move along now, its just protein shakes and a healthy diet...

Drugs? Yes. Problem? Only when it gets found out.

indulge at your peril:
http://forum.cyclingnews.com/viewtopic.php?f=20&t=22225

Probably not as bad as WWE , but not by much

Our investigation found that the average weight of the England team in 1994 — a year before the advent of professionalism — was 14st 5lb (92.3kg). The England team that took on Ireland last Saturday averaged 16st 6lb (105.1kg)

(apologies for quoting the daily fail)

29lbs has [s]magically[/s] through protein shakes and training been added to the average weight of a rugby player since the game went pro.

Next question, what's the average mass that gear use adds to a 14 stone man? One wonders.

Yes, absolutely. Whether they want to do anything about it is a different matter all together.

This is a great quote from that article:
"When it comes to anti-doping, there is a very obvious Catch-22. Take it seriously and catch people (because there are cheats in every area of human activity), or pretend to take it seriously and catch nobody. Do the former and you have a "drugs problem"; do the latter, no problem…until a superstar makes a mistake and the edifice of propriety collapses."

It's not just the mass though. It's the fact that they are so lean and faster than ever.

Inevitable. Any sport which swings more towards the physical aspect and away from the skill/ability/talent aspect will be blighted (and undeniably, rugby has swung this way since professionalism). I'd bet if there was a drug available which magically improved talent (awareness, co-ordination etc), it would be rife in the sports at the ability end.

Next question, what's the average mass that gear use adds to a 14 stone man? One wonders.

Don't drugs shrink your old man? If so, my experience of the changing rooms at Pennyhill Park would suggest the answer is no!! 😉

Personally, I am sceptical about all pro sport. It the modern version of the coliseum.

lunge - Member
Yes, absolutely. Whether they want to do anything about it is a different matter all together.

This.

All sports are absolutely awash with doping. As with cycling, the authorities will wilfully ignore the elephant in the room, until it becomes completely untenable not too. Theres too much money at stake with TV rights, and all the rest of it, so those making fortunes out of it have no interest in changing things.

Nothing to see here....

Pro sport of all kinds has always had a drugs issue. There is something badly wrong with rugby right now, as its unsustainable to have as many major injuries that players are getting.

a year before the advent of professionalism

So the average weight of 14st was essentially that of an amateur sportsman who may have a career as well as playing rugby. Compare that with 16st now which is the weight of a dedicated professional with little else to do but train himself to the peak of his abilities.

It's not just the mass though. It's the fact that they are so lean and faster than ever

That happens when you dedicate yourself to training full time.

Pro sport of all kinds has always had a drugs issue. There is something badly wrong with rugby right now, as its unsustainable to have as many major injuries that players are getting.

I can't be bothered to watch the world cup because of this. The marketing makes me wince, with all the focus on the Big Hit. It's beginning to become as charmless a sport as football.

Agreed the big hit thing is garbage, I'd rather see some proper skill. When wingers are as big as centers or 7's then something is pear shaped.

That happens when you dedicate yourself to training full time.

bwahahahahaha

when you have 3rd cats doping, and people doping on sportives - do you really think that your top of the game sport stars are clean? 😆

£££££££££££££££$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

You can thank Lomu for that, dragon!

need to take back my question about shrinking - almost forgot the lunchbox!

That happens when you dedicate yourself to training full time.

Wrecker sure can, although he'd look fairly normal in the game now!!

1994 - the year of professsionalism

that was also the year that Geweiss had 3 riders on the podium at the Fleche Wallonne with a c8min gap over everyone else
http://www.pezcyclingnews.com/race_news/racenews-07/the-too-good-to-be-true-fleche-1994/#.VgEnn6T4-Hs

bigger they are the harder they fall.

RU keeps pushing itself as the purer, cleaner sport, attracting families through a heavy reliance on respect between players, officials, supporters etc. its a long way down from those lofty heights.

teamhurtmore - Member

need to take back my question about shrinking - almost forgot the lunchbox!

Posted 11 minutes ago #Report-Post

It's the testicles that shrink,they no longer see the point in producing testosterone. Google is your NSFW friend here. I suppose shinkage would make the little fella look bigger...

Thanks a treat for the commute after the 189pp reports 😉

RU keeps pushing itself as the purer, cleaner sport, attracting families through a heavy reliance on respect between players, officials, supporters etc. its a long way down from those lofty heights.

Yeah, but to be fair that was always cobblers. It gets really boring listening to the egg-chasers banging on about premiership footballers and their behaviour, as if all rugby players are like the Dalai Lama, or something.

The fact of the matter is that the popularity of the sport is absolutely minuscule compared to football, so theres far less at stake. Thus the profile of the players receives nowhere the same kind of scrutiny, and the money involved isn't anywhere near the same level, so theres less scope for the dodgy agents, hooky transfer dealings etc that football entails.

If you think for one minute that this supposed golden standard of respect, sportsmanship, blah, blah, blah would continue (if indeed it existed in the first place) if the authorities got their wish, and started puling in Premiership football sized audiences, you're living in cloud cuckoo-land.

I don't think the testing regime is too strict in the premiership. Funny how the pace of the game just gets faster and faster, season on season, isn't it?

no one gets to be like that in any sport through clean living and healty eating

RU keeps pushing itself as the purer, cleaner sport, attracting families through a heavy reliance on respect between players, officials, supporters etc. its a long way down from those lofty heights.

RU has been taken over by commercial interests. Attracting families, getting more TV viewers (especially women - hence the tight kits), focusing on the Big Hit are all the initiatives of the marketing men and women who increasingly rule our professional sports.

But the long-term effect is to flatten all sports and make them increasingly boring. I always have to flip channels when the inevitable music montage starts.

Banned rugby players could form their own league...
or union...

http://www.ukad.org.uk/anti-doping-rule-violations/current-violations/

It may involve pictures THM...

Did I really just read that - Rugby players wear the tight playing tops to attract more female viewers ? I am not sure who should feel more patronised by that idea.

It's no joking matter, but did anyone see the boxer on that list banned for life?!?!?

Clomiphene, Dihydrotestosterone, Mesterolone, Methyltestosterone, Nandrolone, Oxymetholone, Stanozolol, Testosterone, Trenbolone

Did I really just read that - Rugby players wear the tight playing tops to attract more female viewers ? I am not sure who should feel more patronised by that idea.

From an article by a female writer on the Telegraph a few days back:

"Ah. Okay. You’ve caught me. It’s not the game. It’s the gamers. For a large part of the female audience, the greatest attraction of the Rugby World Cup is not the competition, the Corinthian spirit, the chance to relive glory days or whatever it is that attracts male viewers to the sport, but the chance to ogle big beefy men doing big beefy manly things."
[url= http://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/womens-life/11872010/Rugby-World-Cup-is-it-now-ok-to-phwoar-at-men.html ]Link[/url].

*ing hell!!!!
I mean, *ING HELL!!!!!

Fascinating link to UKDA with all the banned athletes.

Seems to me that rugby, union but league more so have a problem.

Attracting families, getting more TV viewers (especially women - hence the tight kits)

Garbage. The kits are tight to make them harder to grab hold of. That's the case in league anyway. Pretty sure that the same stands for kick and clap.

The strips are tighter and collarless to mean it is more difficult to grab a player,they even have sticky bits on the chest to help a ball stay put.

I cant understand why footie players don't have tight shirts - better physiques and avoid all the holding, shirt pulling

cant understand why footie players don't have tight shirts, avoid all the holding, shirt pulling

I suspect it has, but no worse than other sports. It amazes me that no footballers have failed a doping test.

Well she didn't do her research very well ! I have emailed her a few shots of Sonny Bill Williams with his shirt off. That should keep her quiet for a while.

Well she didn't do her research very well ! I have emailed her a few shots of Sonny Bill Williams with his shirt off. That should keep her quiet for a while.

Well it's an opinion piece so more about her reasons for watching rugby, although she does mention this is the case with her friends, and it's also what Ive heard from women down the pub.

I think you are naive as to how commercial marketing works, if you don't understand that athleticism and beauty are very powerful forces in a predominantly visual culture.

I cant understand why footie players don't have tight shirts

But they do, they are far tighter now then 10-15 years ago.

Football tops comparison:

[img] [/img]

with

[img] [/img]

I cant understand why footie players don't have tight shirts - better physiques

Depends what you mean by issue?

If you mean "Do people take performance enhancing banned substances?" then they answer is the same as pretty much every other sport.

"Yes"

The more money is in that sport, the more people will take drugs.
The more speed, strength and power is a priority, the more people will take drugs.

www.biggerstrongerfastermovie.com is available on Netflix and well worth a watch.

No drugs problem.

You just have to. tren hard, eat clen, anavar give up.

You just have to. tren hard, eat clen, anavar give up.

Yes, [url= https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxandrolone ]Anavar[/url] is key... 😉

1994 - the year of professsionalism

Rugby union officially went pro in 1995, it took a few years for most countries to catch up. Here in Wales, other than above the board player payments, little changed until about 1999-00.

Of course players' weights have increased since then. You'd have to be stupid or obtuse not to understand why. The majority of the Welsh backs of the 90 and before were noticably shorter than me. (I'm 5'11"). These days they tower over me. Select players for height and of course weight increases.

Finally, drug use is nothing new. One Swansea/Wales second row who went to school with me was like a bean-pole in his first season at Swansea, in the 80s. Over the summer break he bulked out like you wouldn't believe starting his second season about 3 stone heavier. All by eating broccoli, one would assume. It was endemic then and I guess still is.

29lbs has magically through protein shakes and training been added to the average weight of a rugby player since the game went pro.

Whilst there is no doubt it' present, I'm not so sure drug use is as endemic as suggested on this thread.
I play at a reasonable club level, it's not unusual for me to be our lightest forward at 100kg. I've never taken anything, and I'm pretty certain no one else at my club has. I guess the desire for bigger/more physical players being preferred to skilled players has pushed the game this way, and regular weights training guided by better informed coaches and improved nutrition has facilitated it.

We had a lad who was on the books of a pro club whilst in school. He was put on 6 meals a day to ensure he was big enough before joining the academy full time. There is a more professional approach at all levels of the game.

In a bid to appeal more to the masses, the university I attended decided it would run a sports science degree.

One chap in my year in college was doing this degree. He was a pretty sizeable lad from Yorkshire and was part of the Bradford Bulls Academy.

Well, he was until he and a handful of other academy players got done for drugs.

This is 20 years ago. Rugby League had only been fully professional for under 10 years at that point, and already teenagers were doping.

Rugby Union professionalised in 1995 and surprise, surprise both codes are now full of huge, fast players. What a coincidence.

That 14st average just doesn't feel right at rwc level. I played club in that era and I was 13st and at 5'6" quite broad but by no means biggest guy there.

Most women I know prefer a well built gent to one who looks like a 12 year old (as above).

Even you must have seen becks topless he doe snot look like a 12 year old though granted he is no [s]meat head [/s] beef cake either

Seen? I have the poster 😉
I've seen the beast too, but the majority of footballers are small chaps as that's the shape that the repetition of the sport and training make them into. Meat head? Most rugby players are a sight more eloquent than wendyballers "game ov too aaaves innit?"
😀

😆

Given the risks of injury, it makes sense to have far stricter doping controls in place for contact sports. At least in cycling they aren't hitting each other with ridiculous force....

I imagine the difference between being hit by a 16 stone man rather than a 14 stone man is rather significant.

So better to be the 16 stoner!

How many people in this thread have been/are involved in Rugby at a high level? - only mark 88 seems to have genuine experience, not an opinion based on something they've read.

I played to a high level prior to getting injured and no-one was taking anything illegal - supplements, creatine, etc yes - nothing that was banned or would give any benefit without the working harder/longer/faster, coupled with a specially designed diet.
Most supplements i came across simply helped recovery, you could do the aforementioned (personally i didn't take anything at all, ever - i don't even like taking paracetamol).

I'm not saying no-one takes drugs - I'm sure there are a few, but, i don't believe its rife, as some are suggesting - players are bigger, faster, stronger because of natural selection and lifestyle, enhanced through professionalism.

ever played a valley team?!?!

How many people in this thread have been/are involved in Rugby at a high level?

Yip - Premiership. There is a drugs problem. Testing is lets just say avoidable.

stew1982 - Member How many people in this thread have been/are involved in Rugby at a high level? -