Gatland’s doping suspicion in Wales team
Warren Gatland has opened up on his suspicions that a player was using performing enhancing drugs during his tenure as Wales coach.
‘‘You know I haven’t come across personally any players that I’ve coached from a Wales perspective that I would – well sorry, maybe one. Maybe one, now that I think about it,’’ Gatland told Irish website Off The Ball.
Gatland was quizzed on the topic of doping after South Africa winger Aphiwe Dyantyi tested positive for a banned substance prior to the recent World Cup.
When asked if the person he was referring to had played for Wales, the Kiwi said: ‘‘He may have done, yeah.’’
After 13 years in charge of Wales, Gatland stepped down following the World Cup to return to New Zealand to coach the Chiefs in Super Rugby.
He insisted he had no hard proof that the player in question was doping but jokes among team-mates had left himself asking the question.
‘‘It’s probably a little bit unfair of me to say I had suspicions about one of them because I’ve got no evidence or anything like that,’’ Gatland said to Off the Ball.
‘‘Because it’s kind of like just saying, ‘Is there a possibility?’ It was more like a couple of people making jokes sort of thing. And you go, ‘Oh is that . . .’ ’’
Gatland also addressed the scathing column by former Ireland player Neil Francis in the Irish Times, which claimed South Africa’s World Cup triumph was tainted by a ‘‘steroid culture’’ in the wake of Dyantyi’s positive test.
Gatland said: ‘‘I thought Francis was pretty hard hitting in terms of the article he wrote about the South Africans.
‘‘I kind of thought ‘was it being journalistic, or was it trying to take the gloss off South Africa or was it bitterness as well?’ I’m not sure about that.’’