SPORTS IRELAND SAYS schools rugby is now considered a ‘high risk area’ in the context of anti-doping, but it is unable to carry out drugs testing on players until invited to do so by the Irish Rugby Football Union (IRFU).
There have been renewed calls for the introduction of mandatory testing in Irish secondary schools following the landmark decision in New Zealand to test schoolboy players at the semi-final stage of the national competition for the first time.
As it stands in Ireland, schools rugby does not fall within Sport Ireland’s jurisdiction and while the IRFU facilitates competitions in all four provinces, the issue is that the national governing body does not govern it.
“The bottom line here is, for us to operate an anti-doping programme, there has to be a governing authority, and that’s a national governing body,” Sport Ireland chief executive, John Treacy, says.
“And if there is a positive case, they need the authority to pursue the case. You can’t go into an organisation if you haven’t got a national governing body that has the rules in place.
“So I think the IRFU has been making the case that schools rugby is independent of themselves, and that’s a governance issue, and that’s maybe something that we would hope the IRFU can look at.”
As the Top Four finals tournament in New Zealand is held under the auspices of New Zealand Rugby — the national governing body and a signatory to the World Anti-Doping Agency code — parental consent is not required for testing schoolboy players.
Drugfree Sport NZ, New Zealand’s anti-doping organisation, said it had information which suggested ‘a significant potential for doping to occur’ within the schools rugby environment, and certainly in Ireland the widespread use of supplements is no secret.
