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'It [doping] isn't a great thing to do at all... rugby is a great sport and we need to keep it clean'

By Online Editors
(Photo by Getty Images)

CJ Stander has called on players to think twice before they ever consider doping in rugby. The South African has made it big in the sport with Munster, Ireland and the Lions in recent years despite being written off as being too small when growing up in his native country.

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He did it the hard way – good, honest, hard work – to rise to the top but some other players are tempted to take shortcuts and there has been much talk about doping in South Africa in recent times.

Springbok Aphiwe Dyantyi has been formally charged with a doping offence for multiple anabolic steroids and metabolites after his A and B urine samples tested positive.

Also, the South African Institute for Drug-Free Sport’s (SAIDS) annual report this week revealed that 16 of the 50 anti-doping rule violations (ADRVs) it detected in 2018/19 came from rugby – including six schoolboys who were among those tested at the annual Craven Week interprovincial rugby tournament.

World Rugby boss Brett Gosper insisted on Tuesday that the sport is not rife with performance-enhancing drugs, claiming: “We have been testing the players at this World Cup for the last four years and haven’t stopped, mainly out of competition where you are more likely to catch offenders.”

(Continue reading below…)

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Addressing recent talk in the game about doping, especially back in his native South Africa, Ireland back row Stander said: “When I was young I was out in the sticks. I never really came across a lot.

“I don’t think it’s a great thing to do at all. It’s a great sport and we need to keep it clean. In Ireland anyway they look after all those things and make sure everyone is on track,” he added before commenting on the positive tests detected at Craven Week.

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“I played Craven Week probably 11 years ago. The most you got then was the eggs you got in the morning for the protein. I was tested when I played. They were quite on top of it. Probably in the last few years they had more testers out – I don’t really know what happened. If you want to go down that path, I don’t stand for it at all.

“I was always told I was too small. I just made sure I trained hard and trained well, made sure I looked after my body. If they want you to get taller, you can’t. You can just get stronger.”

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Jon 8 hours ago
Jake White: Are modern rugby players actually better?

This is the problem with conservative mindsets and phycology, and homogenous sports, everybody wants to be the same, use the i-win template. Athlete wise everyone has to have muscles and work at the gym to make themselves more likely to hold on that one tackle. Do those players even wonder if they are now more likely to be tackled by that player as a result of there “work”? Really though, too many questions, Jake. Is it better Jake? Yes, because you still have that rugby of ole that you talk about. Is it at the highest International level anymore? No, but you go to your club or checkout your representative side and still engage with that ‘beautiful game’. Could you also have a bit of that at the top if coaches encouraged there team to play and incentivized players like Damian McKenzie and Ange Capuozzo? Of course we could. Sadly Rugby doesn’t, or didn’t, really know what direction to go when professionalism came. Things like the state of northern pitches didn’t help. Over the last two or three decades I feel like I’ve been fortunate to have all that Jake wants. There was International quality Super Rugby to adore, then the next level below I could watch club mates, pulling 9 to 5s, take on the countries best in representative rugby. Rugby played with flair and not too much riding on the consequences. It was beautiful. That largely still exists today, but with the world of rugby not quite getting things right, the picture is now being painted in NZ that that level of rugby is not required in the “pathway” to Super Rugby or All Black rugby. You might wonder if NZR is right and the pathway shouldn’t include the ‘amateur’, but let me tell you, even though the NPC might be made up of people still having to pull 9-5s, we know these people still have dreams to get out of that, and aren’t likely to give them. They will be lost. That will put a real strain on the concept of whether “visceral thrill, derring-do and joyful abandon” type rugby will remain under the professional level here in NZ. I think at some point that can be eroded as well. If only wanting the best athlete’s at the top level wasn’t enough to lose that, shutting off the next group, or level, or rugby players from easy access to express and showcase themselves certainly will. That all comes back around to the same question of professionalism in rugby and whether it got things right, and rugby is better now. Maybe the answer is turning into a “no”?

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j
john 11 hours ago
Will the Crusaders' decline spark a slow death for New Zealand rugby?

But here in Australia we were told Penney was another gun kiwi coach, for the Tahs…….and yet again it turned out the kiwi coach was completely useless. Another con job on Australian rugby. As was Robbie Deans, as was Dave Rennie. Both coaches dumped from NZ and promoted to Australia as our saviour. And the Tahs lap them up knowing they are second rate and knowing that under pressure when their short comings are exposed in Australia as well, that they will fall in below the largest most powerful province and choose second rate Tah players to save their jobs. As they do and exactly as Joe Schmidt will do. Gauranteed. Schmidt was dumped by NZ too. That’s why he went overseas. That why kiwi coaches take jobs in Australia, to try and prove they are not as bad as NZ thought they were. Then when they get found out they try and ingratiate themselves to NZ again by dragging Australian teams down with ridiculous selections and game plans. NZ rugby’s biggest problem is that it can’t yet transition from MCaw Cheatism. They just don’t know how to try and win on your merits. It is still always a contest to see how much cheating you can get away with. Without a cheating genius like McCaw, they are struggling. This I think is why my wise old mate in NZ thinks Robertson will struggle. The Crusaders are the nursery of McCaw Cheatism. Sean Fitzpatrick was probably the father of it. Robertson doesn’t know anything else but other countries have worked it out.

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