The Irish Rugby Football Union is firmly opposed to the notion that all schools rugby players should be subject to drug testing, describing the suggestion to be 'excessive and unfair' when approached for comment by Off the Ball.
At Off the Ball's Heineken event in the University of Limerick campus on Wednesday night, former Irish Rugby captain Brian O'Driscoll expressed concerns regarding the current exemption of schools players from anti-doping regulation in Ireland.
A discussion sparked by recent revelations regarding South Africa's Aphiwe Dyantyi and a failed drugs test that ruled the winger out of the Rugby World Cup in Japan, O'Driscoll, who insisted that instances such as Dyanti's are a rarity due to the intense level of testing in rugby's professional ranks, directed his attention toward areas of the sport operating under less scrutiny.
"In Ireland, we don't have testing at a schoolboy level which for me I don't understand," he explained, "that's where the real temptation is.
"If I was a parent of a 15, 16-year-old skinny kid that is being told they're not going to make it because they're not big enough, and there's temptation and something presents itself, I would want my kid to be tested."
Flanked by Clive Woodward, Keith Wood and Craig Chalmers on the night, an exception to the general rule O'Driscoll discussed was highlighted by his former international teammate.
"There was a competition down here in UL a couple of weeks ago," explained Keith Wood, "and there was testing for the schoolboys."
Indeed, at a recent U18 inter-provincial competition hosted by UL, participating schoolboys were subject to the possibility of a random drugs test.
The IRFU, in conjunction with Sport Ireland, confirmed that any tests conducted were in keeping with their policy of testing schoolboys already on Irish Rugby's pathway to professional rugby program, and were carried out with the full knowledge of the players' guardians.
As Sport Ireland's guideline to the drug-testing of minors states:
The decision to test athletes is not based on age; it is based on the level that the athlete is competing at. Minors competing at national level may be tested. When a minor is providing a sample they have the right to request their representative to be present in the toilet area. The representative will not witness the passing of the sample but are present to watch the actions of the Chaperone/DCO who is witnessing the sample.
Schoolboy rugby in the broader sense remains a developmental stepping-stone beyond the remit of anti-doping regulation, however.
In contrast to the concerns shared by Brian O'Driscoll, a spokesperson for the Irish Rugby Football Union insisted to Off the Ball that they remain confident that the current system in place is sufficient, describing the prospect of widespread testing for all schools players as "excessive and unfair."
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