Schools in denial over First XV drugs use

Supplement use is rife in schoolboy rugby and institutions must wake up to dangers

Ask the inmates and it will turn out prisons are full of innocent men. Ask the teachers or coaches and it will turn out that no pupils at any schools are taking supplements anywhere in New Zealand.

“Not at our school, not our boys, not on our watch,” is the standard response before there are veiled implications or not so subtle hints that the local rival up the road may be the better place to be directing questions.

This is more worrying than it is frustrating. Worrying because Drug Free Sport New Zealand conducted a survey in 2013-2014 that threw up a number of alarming results. They barely dipped their finger in and yet they came away highly concerned that supplement taking is probably rife in First XV rugby and worse, there may be some kids that have already dabbled in performance-enhancing drugs. It was a view backed by former Waikato and Springboks halfback Kevin Putt, now a housemaster at King’s College in Auckland, who told Radio Sport “they’re all taking supplements — but 10 per cent are taking steroids”.

So schools that insist it is not a problem, or not one specific to their institution, are either unforgivably naive or wilfully in denial. Either way they are blundering along with a level of ignorance or defiance on a stunning level that has the capacity to catastrophically explode in their faces.

This is a problem that simply can’t be ignored any longer.

Schools might think that by claiming they have no problems, they are telling their parents what they want to hear. Deny it all and parents can be reassured that drug testing First XV kids is yet more bureaucratic madness. DFSNZ are then portrayed as the big, bad wolf having made the decision to institute random drugtesting at next month’s national Top Four Championship.

Concerns have already been raised about privacy issues, about the ethics of testing children but DFSNZ is not the bad guy. It is definitely not over-reacting and if it is playing any role, it is that of saving schools from themselves.

DFSNZ has its suspicions that supplement taking is extensive within this age group. What it needs now is some kind of hard evidence to confirm they are right. If there are positive tests, schools will be compelled to take the issue more seriously than they currently do. They will be under pressure to monitor their players better and provide deeper, more extensive education about the dangers of supplements and doping.

It is too late to imagine the horse can be put back in the stable in regard to reducing the perceived importance of rugby within the culture of all boys’ schools. It’s too late to believe that First XV players across New Zealand can be reprogrammed to accept that only a tiny number of them are actually good enough or well-enough equipped to make the professional ranks and that they should just enjoy the experience for what it is rather than as a pathway to a well-paid career.

The situation can’t be changed but it can be better managed. That begins with the major rugby schools accepting that not only is there a problem with supplements but that they are duty-bound to do what they can to help eradicate it.