Bulk today, shame tomorrow

As the spotlight falls on drug use in Kiwi rugby, Charles Anderson speaks to a former player whose career was ended by a steroid scandal.

He can’t bring himself to watch the game anymore. It reminds him of a future that was lost – one he gave away. Andrew Burne had dreams of the big time. He was a Hawke’s Bay boy – born and raised on stories of the region’s rugby greats. The game was all there was.

So he played – through school, age-grade representatives and into club rugby. When he moved to Wellington he got the call up to play for Johnsonville’s premier team and Wellington Maori. Burne, however, had his sights on bigger things – Super Rugby.

But when you get to that level there is pressure.

‘‘In that environment you are training against other blokes trying to get ahead,’’ he says. ‘‘These are older guys who were already bigger, so I was trying to catch up.’’

Drugs in sport was back in the spotlight this week after the Sunday Star-Times revealed that All Black Patrick Tuipulotu had tested positive to a ‘‘specified substance’’, before being cleared of any wrongdoing. That case has highlighted potential flaws in the investigation process but Burne tells a different story – one about the consequences of using performance-enhancing drugs.

When he was at the gym during the off-season, Burne would notice the bodybuilders who always seemed to be able to put on muscle with ease. He wasn’t a huge player but thought to compete he had to be. So he started talking to those bodybuilders about their regimen. He began researching steroids and worked up the courage to start asking for them.

Throughout his training there was never any mention of the dangers of steroids, he says. He had heard about Olympians being stripped of medals but he couldn’t think of a rugby player ever getting in trouble.

Around the world, steroid use in rugby is on the rise with many players being banned in Europe. Wales, in particular, currently has a dozen rugby players banned.

However, New Zealand rugby has been apparently immune, despite concerns about the proliferation of drugs, particularly in the lower levels of the game.

Customs stopped more illegal steroids at the border in 2013 than during the previous four years but there is only one person currently banned from playing rugby for steroid use. That person is Burne.

The average male produces 50mcg of testosterone a week. The steroids that Burne took pumped that up to between 250mcg and 500mcg.

Over the 18 months that he used dianabol he gained about 10kg of muscle and ended up weighing about 108kg. Burne was pleased with the results.

‘‘I got big real fast,’’ he says. But the gains came at a price. ‘‘I didn’t weigh it up. If I was more aware at the time of the seriousness of it, like a lot of players are now, I definitely would not have done it.’’

The police raid on Burne’s house in September 2013 came as a shock.

‘‘I was so focussed on rugby that I wasn’t even thinking about it.’’

Police found four bottles of dianabol and charged him with three offences under the Medicines Act. Burne pleaded guilty in Wellington District Court but was discharged without conviction.

Then Drug Free Sport New Zealand (DFSNZ) took the case to New Zealand Rugby’s judicial committee. He admitted three violations relating to use of a prohibited substance, including trafficking. Burne had sold some of his steroids to others.

The maximum penalty for trafficking was a ban from the sport of between four years and life.

The judicial committee heard that Burne started with personal use but was ‘‘duped’’ into becoming involved in the distribution of steroids among a tight-knit group at the gym.

The committee settled on a sixyear ban.

Drug Free Sport NZ chief executive Graeme Steel says the fact Burne is the only banned rugby player for steroids does likely not reflect the amount of drug use in the sport. But DFSNZ does not actively police the lower levels of the game. If Burne had not been investigated by police he likely would never have been caught.

In that environment you are training against other blokes trying to get ahead. These are older guys who were already bigger, so I was trying to catch up. Andrew Burne, right

Steel says that the organisation has been proactive about promoting the dangers of using banned substances. It has recently even pushed this into secondary school sports programmes.

‘‘It’s a recognition of the specific dangers of young athletes coming out of school with the physical attributes of a top sportsperson but not all the knowledge and skills. There is a naivety with many of them.’’

When the news came through of the ban Burne says he was devastated. ‘‘I was pretty broken. It was like losing a best mate. There was this emptiness. I was lost.’’

He is also scathing of a process which he says seemed to favour a punishment that outweighed the crime.

‘‘I’ve got no respect for Drug Free New Zealand … the way they handled it was pretty f .... d. I wasn’t even playing at the time.’’ Steel does not buy that. ‘‘We are bound by a code that we will continue to review. These are policy matters.’’

However, the organisation is aware of the spectrum of players they are dealing with.

‘‘Where do you draw the line? The clear answer is that if you are bound by the rules and you break them then you take a case. But that may be case by case.’’

Burne says maybe he will go back to rugby one day. But the passion has gone.

He has moved to Australia and still goes to the gym but stays away from the steroids. He still can’t watch the game.

‘‘It’s hard for me, it makes me think about it. Like how I wanted to do that. Everyone tries to climb the ladder as fast as they can go. I wanted to get there but I needed patience. I needed more patience.’’