No juice was taken in the making of this tournament.
World Rugby has released the results, to date, from 468 separate anti-doping tests undertaken at the World Cup.
200 players were tested in-competition during the two-month tournament with another 268 out-of-competition samples collected. All told, that is 468 spread across the 20 competing teams.
According to World Rugby, the testing, which was run in partnership with UK Anti-Doping, the programme ‘has recorded no adverse analytical findings to date’. Their statement reads:
‘The testing programme included a mix of urine (317 samples collected) and blood (151).
‘All samples were analysed by the Drug Control Centre at the World Anti-Doping Agency-accredited laboratory at King’s College, London. Samples will be stored for future re-analysis in line with previous events.
‘England 2015 was the first Rugby World Cup to feature the Athlete Biological Passport programme following its introduction by World Rugby in 2013.’
The spotlight was shone upon doping prior to the tournament when Toulon were mixed up in a pharmacy supplements sting, which their president dismissed as nonsense, and the two-year ban for South African prop Chiliboy Ralepelle for drugs use.
In September, Christian Bagate, head of French Rugby Federation’s anti-doping team, told AFP, “The public has the right to doubt that our players are clean and unfortunately you can find supplements that have doping products on sale in supermarket.”
The positive results will please World Rugby but that will not stop all samples being stored for further tests at a later date.
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