Doping

A lot of scumbags in boxing, and that’s before the doping.

Those states subsidise drug programs for arm wrestling? Wild.

Yeah - all the top arm wrestlers are American or former-USSR. Current top-ranked guy's from Georgia - those states have always loved their power sports and the associated chemicals. It's a bit of a big deal, and there's quite a lot of money and national prestige involved.

My mate competes, but is more involved in organisation - most of his headaches are defusing situations and building contingency plans for when two roided-up man-mountains with their mates decide to kick off.

Make love not war

Do they drug test school rugby in the UK? I imagine that the pressure to put muscle mass on quickly is fairly high if you look at the average weight of players over the years, between 1994(92kg) and 2023(105kg).

I very much doubt it.

Isn't that the caper these days - get massive when you're a kid because there's no testing and even if you're banned it doesn't damage your career much (youthful error, blah blah) and then work your way up.

Make love not war

Well, most of them are mates and, unsurprisingly, massive drinkers - some of the bigger guys will put back 40 pints in a night, which makes the £30k on dope seem like chickenfeed...

They don't even test professional rugby

Robert Oakley Rugby Football League - RFL Three year ban
Russell Spiers Rugby Football League - RFL Three year ban
Callum Marriott Rugby Football League - RFL Three year ban
Jonathan Magrin Rugby Football League - RFL Three-year ban
Ryan Forshaw Rugby Football League - RFL Three-year ban
Ben Harrison Rugby Football League - RFL Four-year ban
Jamie Dallimore Rugby Football League - RFL Three-year ban
Marc Shackley Rugby Football League - RFL Four-year ban
Jamie Acton Rugby Football League - RFL Two-year ban
Andrew Lea Rugby Football League - RFL Four-year ban
Rhys Pugsley Rugby Football League - RFL Eight-year ban
Ross Bevan Rugby Football League - RFL Seven-year, three month ban

Douglas Steele Scottish Rugby Union - SRU Three-year ban
Liam Jenkins Welsh Rugby Union - WRU Three-year ban
Christopher Mayor Rugby Football Union - RFU Four-year ban
Carl Hone Welsh Rugby Union - WRU Four-year ban
Ellis Richards Welsh Rugby Union - WRU Four-year ban
Ralph Rainbow Rugby Football Union - RFU Four-year ban
Darren Eales Scottish Rugby Union - SRU Eight-year ban
Kurt Brown Rugby Football Union - RFU Four-year ban
Arran Perry Rugby Football Union - RFU Four-year ban
Jesse Patton Welsh Rugby Union - WRU Four-year ban
Max Drage Rugby Football Union - RFU Four-year ban
Redacted Rugby Football Union - RFU Four-year ban
Stephen Hihetah Rugby Football Union - RFU Four-year ban
Leigh Dearden Rugby Football Union - RFU Four-year ban
Andrew Quarry Rugby Football Union - RFU Twelve-year ban

Shaun Leonard Cycling Time Trials - CTT Four-year ban
Erin McBride British Cycling - BC Three-year ban

https://www.ukad.org.uk/sanctions

Andrew Quarry Rugby Football Union - RFU Twelve-year ban

Lolz

https://www.independent.co.uk/sport/rugby/rugby-union/news-comment/rfu-anti-doping-report-2017-18-drugs-test-premiership-rugby-players-failed-a8882901.html

https://www.skysports.com/rugby-union/news/12321/11701623/rfu-insist-they-dont-have-to-drug-test-every-premiership-player-to-tackle-doping

https://www.sportsjoe.ie/rugby/difference-much-rugby-players-tested-rugby-gaa-scary-123004

https://www.walesonline.co.uk/sport/rugby/rugby-news/drugs-welsh-rugby-number-players-15054080

"UKAD conducted 304 tests on behalf of the Welsh Rugby Union (94,000 registered players) last year, of which, 48 were in-competition and 256 were out-of-competition"

And? Like everything, there's budget constraints so the testing is targeted. They can't just test every registered player.

I've been tested. National Champ. Clearly so was that guy that doped to win the Nat 12hr TT. It seems very obvious to me they're doing what they can with limited testing resources.

40 pints?!

Before lunch.

My points is it's been an ongoing story in rugby about how lax their testing is

My point was that they clearly are doing some testing in rugby.

I would consider testing lax in every sport. But who's going to pay for it to be increased?
Stick the entry fees up and fewer people will compete.

No wonder they need a little boost

Turn up to a club, have a trial, get told that you're good, come back in 2 years when you're big.

Meh, I made a flippant comment about the known lack of drug testing in a high level international sport. I'm not going to write a white paper on solutions and best practices for UKAD.

I might. Stayed tuned. It will be wonderful.

Drug testing in nz rugby is a joke. Not a single player on the current sanctions list. Anecdotally it's very widespread.

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40 pints?!

I'm reliably assured by my (teetotal) mate keeping count. These guys are 30 stone. I couldn't do that in a Bank Holiday weekend. Maybe @hippy could.

He would try and he would fail. But he would have fun trying. At least until the hangover kicked in.