Senior officials at World Rugby have stated they are confident their sport is mostly drug-free despite two recent positive tests recorded by international players in the run-up to the Rugby World Cup in France.
Wales’s Rhys Webb and South Africa’s Elton Jantjies are the subject of disciplinary scrutiny following recent initial adverse tests, raising fears that doping might be on the rise across rugby. But the World Rugby chief executive, Alan Gilpin, insists the sport’s Keep Rugby Clean programme is working and he does not believe the integrity of the 2023 tournament, which gets under way on Friday, is under threat.
Updated technology which permits testing of old blood samples is also now available to the authorities, for example, permitting the retesting of samples collected at the 2019 competition in Japan. None have thrown up any retrospective positives, raising hopes that doping is not rife in the modern game. “Does rugby have a doping problem? I think the evidence suggests ‘no’,” Gilpin said.
“We’re already confident in the programmes we have in place. We’ve taken really significant steps to make sure every team during this tournament are tested in and out of competition. Our regime and our programmes are really extensive. There are occasionally positives – we have seen a couple recently – but I think the evidence would suggest we don’t have a problem in this sport.”
Gilpin is equally upbeat about this World Cup – “We’ve got great guests coming to our great party” – with the World Rugby chairman, Bill Beaumont, adding that 600,000 overseas fans are expected to travel to France in the coming weeks. More than 1.8 million tickets have been sold so far, 55% of them to French supporters.
To enhance the event still further, the governing body also says it wants its male players to learn from the women’s World Cup last year and make a concerted effort to showcase the game’s best aspects. Organisers are keen to encourage the players to exhibit more of their character and personality to the wider world, as players such as the Black Ferns’ Ruby Tui did so effectively. “What we saw in New Zealand, which is so important for rugby in the future, is players’ personalities,” Gilpin said. “I think there’s a lot the men can learn from that.”
Discipline-wise, meanwhile, World Rugby believes the “bunker review” system for incidents of potential foul play should run more smoothly at the tournament, despite the protracted debate last month following Owen Farrell’s upgraded red card. “We’re confident but I guess we’re not complacent,” Gilpin said.
“Any time you’re introducing new processes and procedures there’s always going to be some learnings, and I think there have been. The key difference for us when we come into the tournament is that we get to control the process much more.”
The top three sides in each pool will automatically qualify for the 2027 tournament, with expansion to 24 teams also likely from 2031. Not everything, however, is wholly within the control of the RWC authorities before the opening-night blockbuster between France and New Zealand in Paris on Friday. Roasting hot weather is forecast across France all this week, with England’s game against Argentina in Marseille on Saturday among those set to go ahead in temperatures of around 30C (86F). Organisers are already discussing whether to introduce an official in-game drinks break every 20 minutes to help players to rehydrate properly.
Attempts to portray the tournament as the most enlightened and diverse in history, similarly, have been complicated by a row over the 11th-hour selection of the France lock Bastien Chalureau, who is appealing a conviction for a racially motivated attack on two former players in 2020.
“As far as Bastien Chalureau is concerned he has admitted to acts of violence but has always denied making racist remarks,” the French Rugby Federation president, Florian Grill, said. “He is appealing so we have to let the law take its course and see this judicial process through to the end.”
Chalureau was handed a six-month suspended prison sentence in 2020 after being found guilty of “acts of violence committed because of the victim’s race or ethnicity”.
The Montpellier player, who admitted to acts of violence but denied making racist comments, has appealed against that conviction.
“This story has been around for years and I totally deny the allegations of racism,” Chalureau told reporters on Monday, four days ahead of Les Bleus’ opening game against three-time champions New Zealand in Pool A. Chalureau was called up last Friday to replace the injured lock Paul Willemse, having already won six caps since his conviction.
“Since the first day I’ve admitted my mistakes but denied racism allegations. I am not a racist. I wanted to come and say it out loud here today, because it is something that affects also my team and my family,” Chalureau added with tears in his eyes.
French President Emmanuel Macron supported national team coach Fabien Galthie over his decision to pick Chalureau.
“I’m not going to comment on [Galthie’s] choices. He makes them conscientiously and responsibly. They are, by definition, the right ones,” said Macron, who paid a visit to the squad on the outskirts of Paris.
