'We don't go 'That guy is pretty big and pretty ripped' so let's focus on him'

World Rugby is taking proactive steps to educate younger players about the dangers and pitfalls of taking performance-enhancing substances as part of a never-ending war to ‘keep rugby clean’.

The physical strides made by elite rugby players since the dawn of professionalism has inevitably led to conjecture around the potentiality of doping within the game and the issue is very much something that World Rugby are across and alive to.

The governing body’s Anti-Doping Education Manager, Ross Blake, spoke to RugbyPass about the importance of reaching young people before they make poor choices in relation to what substances they put into their body, whether on purpose or – increasingly – accidentally.

World Rugby – Keep Rugby Clean

World Rugby – Keep Rugby Clean

While Blake maintains that at the professional end of rugby union, doping remains comparatively low, he believes every effort must be made to maintain and ensure the sport stays on top of what is a complex and ever-evolving issue.

“We’re trying to be proactive and get our education out there,” said Blake – who was attending an U18s tournament in Dublin on WADA’s Play True Day on Friday. ‘Whether that be through our e-learning program or different resources or through face-to-face, and things like outreach that I’m doing now, trying to engage younger players face-to-face so that they can start getting this message as young as possible and try and bring this kind of knowledge of anti-doping through their career with them.”

While physiques play a role in selection for testing, it’s very much the smaller part of the piece. That’s not to say profiling isn’t a thing, it is something that happens, but it’s very much blood-testing and performance-linked data that leads it, as Blake explains.

“We have a pretty intelligent testing program which is based on test history, but we also use the athlete biological passport programme (ABP), which monitors individual biological profiles collected in blood and urine over time and this underpins the intelligent-testing approach.

“The ABP looks for changes in players’ steroidal and haematological profiles that may indirectly indicate doping and enables more precise targeting of players for testing and analysis; certain points around a player’s steroid profile and their haematological profile.  We do a lot of testing and I think we let that guide us more than anything else.

“Obviously, if we see a player whose performance has jumped massively we go, okay, well, that’s something that we probably need to look at – targeting them and doing some additional testing and to get more data points on their steroidal and haematological program profile.

“But I don’t think we necessarily go ‘Yeah, that guy is pretty big and pretty ripped or his jaw is a bit bigger, so let’s focus on him’. If they’re part of our testing field pool, they’re going to be tested anyway. But it might just be that we do a couple of extra tests or we do different types of analysis [on said individual].”

The current generation of rugby players has grown up in a world where pre-workout, protein shakes and dietary supplementation is far more common than a generation ago. As such, it’s no longer just about catching those who are actively cheating by using banned substances, but also educating young rugby players about the risk of accidentally ingesting a banned substance.

“There’s nothing I think that we’ve seen within the game that is concerned us and pushing us towards more action but I think it’s just always been conscious that there are so many pressures now in society through social media and various other areas. Even if you walk into a gym, I think we all know the risks, as a player, of going through a gym if you don’t have the right information or knowledge.

“If somebody comes up to you and says, I’ve got this great product. It’s all aboveboard, it can help you get bigger and faster and stronger. If you don’t have that prior anti-doping education, you could potentially make a bad decision there and inadvertently take something that is prohibited. So that’s the kind of thing we’re trying to prevent.”

Blake describes young rugby players consuming contaminated supplements as a ‘huge concern’, be they amateur or professional athletes.

“A lot of the cases that we’ve had over the years are based on supplements that have been contaminated. So again, as part of our education, we have a couple of videos on our website and our e-learning program that try to highlight a food-first approach.

“If that’s not something that you think is feasible, we suggest players try and minimize the risks by using websites such as Informed Sport (www.wetestyoutrust.com), which can highlight what supplements have been batch tested, and that will help minimise the risk.  Just because you get a supplement in Ireland and you think it’s fine, so you go ‘Well, actually I can get the same product cheaper online from a different country’ and that can lead to issues. So potentially the same supplements in different countries could contain different ingredients as well, whether they’re contaminated or not, it can still actually contain banned substances. So, again, that’s something that we tried to highlight with our education.”

A huge amount of pressure to be bigger, stronger and faster comes in the teenage years, when players are competing to make their school or club teams, or even potentially hoping to make it into an academy program with a professional side.

“It’s important for us as well to work with the unions to try and get to lower levels whether that be provincial or club systems that may have players from 12, 14, 16 and up because the sooner we can get the message across to them, the better. That’s not to say 18 is too late.”

The risk-reward balance can vary depending on which rugby-playing nation a young person is growing up in and it poses a challenge for World Rugby.

“There’s a certain point where if a player feels that the reward is higher than the risk that they might be willing to take it but what we’ve tried to do to push against that is show them examples of people who’ve come from the same background, but who have succeeded without going down the wrong route.

“We use successful players as ambassadors, to get these guys to go out and do face-to-face education sessions or be available at an outreach session where they can speak to the players face to face because that’s where you have most of your impact, I think.”

World Rugby has also stepped up its education efforts, releasing a new anti-doping education video aimed at players, coaches, and support staff.

“I would say [to someone who is considering taking performance-enhancing substances] to speak with somebody whether it be me but probably better speak to their strength and conditioning coaches, their team managers, their doctors and look at what they can do the right way to improve their performance.

“So can they get can they sleep better, can they rehydrate better? Can they recover from training better, can they eat better? Look at all these other options before going ‘This is my only solution’ because usually, that’s the easy route.

“If you take a little bit more time and go a slightly different route, you can still do it the right way without cheating. I think that’s when it starts. Speak to people that you trust and who are in a position of knowledge on these areas and get them to guide you the right way.”

The war on doping in rugby is one that is constantly waged and one where complacency just isn’t an option.

“Education is key. It’s about trying to get the right information out there, trying to give the players the tools to make the right decisions. There are a lot of misconceptions out there, a lot of bad information, and that’s where we need to step in and provide accurate information.”

You can learn about World Rugby’s ‘Keep Rugby Clean’ initiative, as well as the list of banned substances by visiting https://www.world.rugby/keep-rugby-clean