Rugby League's Drug Problem

Rugby league has the worst doping problem in Britain, with more of its performers testing positive for banned anabolic steroids than any other sport in the country.

Figures released yesterday by UK Sport, the body responsible for drug testing in Britain, revealed that 18 leading players produced adverse findings for banned substances during the period April 2001 to March 2002.

That included 10 for anabolic agents, nearly half of the 26 cases among the 40 sports in which UK Sport conducts testing. During the same period the previous year only two rugby league players had tested positive for steroids.

The most remarkable statistic is that, in six out-of-competition tests, four league players showed traces of steroids. By comparison, the 506 out-of-competition tests in athletics yielded no adverse findings.

"We are doing our level best to keep drugs out of the game," said John Huxley, the Rugby Football League spokesman. "These figures show that our testing is yielding the kind of findings that will act as a serious deterrent."

The rise comes after the RFL took the decision to increase its anti-doping programme from 185 tests in 2000-1 to 296 in the 2001-2 period, the league paying for 148 of the later tests.

The RFL claims that about a third of professionals are tested each season, with two from each team at a randomly chosen match, a bigger percentage than in any other sport. "Rugby league are committed to making sure their sport is drug-free," said Michele Verroken, UK Sport's anti-doping director. "They shouldn't be ashamed of that."

The figures, which also included six positives for stimulants usually found in cold treatments, one for marijuana and a refusal by a player to consent to a test, surprised rugby league insiders. The RFL had made public only the cases of the Warrington pair David Highton and David Alstead, who tested positive for nandrolone. Both claimed the drug was in food supplements and though Highton was banned it was accepted that Alstead did not "knowingly take a prohibited substance".

Huxley said that cases involving stimulants were never made public but he confirmed that "a number of players are still under investigation" for steroid abuse.

A UK Sport record total of 6,013 tests were conducted during 2001-2, 1,137 on behalf of the Football Association, 708 for UK Athletics and 321 for the Rugby Football Union. There were 101 adverse findings, the lowest since 1998-9.

But Richard Callicott, the chief executive of UK Sport, was worried that the number of leading athletes unavailable when testers turned up had fallen only from 76 to 69. "It's something we are continuing to work on," he said. "Athletes have to take a lot more responsibility when it comes to letting people know where they are."