Rugby - Dirty Steroid Secret? Week In Week Out

We will look at a range of options, it could be the suspension of

rush-hour. While the world looks at Russia,

there's a problem closer to home. Wales's lower tier rugby players are

topping the list for drug bans. It's commonly known Welsh rugby

players are mad for taking steroids. Tonight we ask -

are players getting away with it? I think if people really want to

cheat the system they'll find a way. I think there should

be lifetime bans. We carry out

our own revealing questionnaire. And we ask- are those

at the top tackling the problem? One player getting banned is one

too many as far as I'm concerned. It's not a great situation

for the sport. It's training night at

Caerphilly Rugby Club. They play in Division 3

of the national league. Power and strength have always

been a big part of rugby... But coach Gareth Short feels drug

use I think it is a big issue

at the moment. I'd say nine times out

of ten the teams we play against have got one or two boys playing who

are taking steroids at the time. Everybody else trains hard,

our boys go to the gym, Somebody who's taking performance

enhancing drugs - yeah they do train hard but they get

better gains from it... The boys taking steroids they're a

different kind of shape - you look It's not very well regulated

in lower leagues - there's not a lot of drug testing goes on so I

think the boys think they can get The facts seem to support

the suspicion in union and league there are more players banned

in rugby than in any other sport. And last week two more Welsh

players joined the list. I've represented Wales

in four different sports and I know there are always people willing to

break the rules to get an edge. But during my rugby career I won

87 caps for Wales and I always Now, with so many players

banned I've had to think again. I want to find out if authorities

are doing a better job of policing Most of the players from Wales who

have tested positive for performance enhancing drugs were found to have

traces of anabolic steroids - On the banned list from Wales are

17 players from semi pro to grass He's now back playing with

championship side Merthyr He didn't want to be interviewed,

but we spoke to the club doctor. And obviously for the individual,

Ben - he's a young lad. He wasn't tested positive

for any steroids or anabolic or He was picked up

for having a banned substance Ben perhaps was naive and perhaps

could have taken further steps. But another point is what stimulated

the sort of interest We didn't want anyone else's career

to potentially be jeopardized. It's accepted that sports

supplements and medications CAN cause players to fail drugs tests -

either because they contain ingredients

that aren't on the label or athletes There's this desire

and drive to be big. You see the likes of Jamie Roberts,

Leigh Halfpenny, Sam Warburton. They are massive athletes,

almost like Gladiators. They are in an extremely intense

professional environment and then they have all the support

and the supplements to go with it. And a further problem, he says,

is the drugs are too easy to find. They're widely available

on the internet. You can do it from the comfort of

your own home. Available the is a problem. I want the players to be

safe. I see the bad effects. I see people coming

in with heart attacks at the age of Because I don't want that

to happen to my players. A total of 30 Rugby players

from both league and union are 20-year-old Daniel Spencer Tonks

from Gloucester has played both I think there has also been a

massive problem. He is one of 14 league players

suspended from the sport in Britain. Welsh rugby players are mad

for taking steroids. I've played a lot of rugby in Wales

and obviously when I was playing rugby league and you do hear

a lot people saying the Welsh... You can look at a person you can

just tell, like that is a person that goes to the gym, plays rugby,

you know what you can achieve by how much you train etc and you know

what's possible and you can tell Daniel has been handed

a four year ban from ALL sports He would not even be allowed to

play pool for his local pub team. The reason I took it is because I

was out in Dubai on the beaches I was eighteen stone,

I wanted to lose a bit of weight, cut all the fat off me and shred up

and just look good really. Daniel had taken

the same drug used by Ben Johnson who was stripped of his gold medal

at the 1988 Seoul Olympics. It's had a massive effect on me,

family, friends. Sometimes I just don't know

what to do with myself. I just think what I'm

going to do now. Everything I've worked for my whole

life, everything I've put my effort Dan was banned

while playing rugby league. I asked Chris Thair

from the sport why Welsh players I think when you do get a spike

in a number of positive tests I think we've got to do more

as a sport. And it's not a great situation

for the sport to be in. It's a huge global issue

for all sports on the banned list. There are fifty players this year

in different sports involved. South Wales Scorpions have been

in the news. They tested

the whole squad 30 players. There was no culture within the

club. It comes down to what they see and what they want as sportspeople.

While making this programme I found out that steroids and rugby are

Getting players to speak openly is difficult.

But one has agreed to talk us anonymously.

We've called him Steve and his interview is played by an actor.

At one time he played at semi professional level and retired

So I started playing rugby at schoolboy level, Welsh schools,

then went on to play semi professional rugby.

I took different forms of testosterone - anabolic steroids.

Just like looking at guys around me in the gym, people

developing faster, not training as much and just the competition.

You see players getting fitter, faster, stronger,

who are obviously using anabolic steroids, and it's sort of

a pressure put on you then, if you want to perform you need to start

How would you describe how big performance enhancing drugs are

I think people are probably blind to it, and if the truth came out I

think there would probably be a lot more players who are banned

I've been taking a look at the figures for banned rugby

players and what shocks me is the proportion that are from Wales.

Between union and league Welsh names make up half the list.

Testing for drugs in sport is controlled by the UK

Samples are analysed here at Kings College London.

What our intelligence is showing us is that a number of positive

This works very much now on the premise that we follow

So if we think there's a problem somewhere

in a particular sport or a particular team or club, we will

put more effort into uncovering what we think might be going on.

Proportionately how many cheats are you catching?

It's something that really is difficult

So with research hard to come by we decided to see what we could

We took an anonymous questionnaire to six grassroots rugby union clubs.

The first thing we found out was that 23

of the 100 players said they would take performance enhancing drugs

At Brighton University more scientific research is underway.

Professor Yannis Pitsiladis is one expert working to beat

From some data that's beginning to emerge it appears it's certainly

happening within the youth in rugby and therefore we don't know

There isn't much testing, there aren't the deterrents there

so there is almost an inevitable pathway for an athlete to take.

World rugby - the sport's governing body - says it's putting more money

Last year they produced this video to warn young players.

It features Sam Chalmers - son of Scotland international, Craig.

He tested positive for an anabolic steroid in May 2013

I'd been getting under pressure by people saying you've got

the skills and stuff, you just need to put on weight, get bigger,

bigger and one day I just thought, I'll take what my friends taking.

When you want something so bad you just do anything.

Steve says that as a young player he felt pressure to take steroid and

I think certainly at a younger level I think there's less drug testing

going on, but the pressures when you're younger to make those

quick jumps - especially with young players now who have got the

opportunity to have a full time professional career, I certainly

When you were taking it, did you feel guilty?

Were you aware of other people taking steroids around you?

Yeah, I was definitely aware of other

It was how I was first put onto it - from other players who were already

Martin Phillips is the new Chief Executive of the Welsh Rugby Union.

I think it's a problem in society to start with.

I wouldn't sit here and say that it's not a problem in rugby because

one player getting banned is one too many as far as I'm concerned.

So the challenge for us, not just in rugby,

but in sport generally, is we've got to try and get it out of the game.

I don't think that's going to be easy.

A third of the players banned at the moment on the UK anti-doping

list are from rugby - that must be a concern for you?

I was quite heartened that we're clearly very focussed on this area,

we are catching people, and the intelligence we get - maybe there's

a gym or a club who are doing the wrong thing - you pull at that

There are some mainstream sports that aren't even testing the amateur

players in their sport, big national sports, so the first thing for me is

to try and level the playing field and get some good quality testing

Most players who are caught are at grassroots

The professional game is clean and long may that continue,

Michael Owen played rugby union for 11 years and captained Wales to

He says players and the public underestimate the hard work and

commitment of the professional game I think from a rugby perspective,

I think that the players today are incredible athletes in great shape,

but I look at it and see the advances that have been

made in strength and conditioning and the understanding of what people

And I think they're one of the things I

like to see is maybe like as a sport we are proactive rather than

waiting for some to fail a drugs test to try and say we're going to

We're going to publish the data on people's fitness test results,

publish the data on what supplements people are taking and try to make it

You have got facts to prove it and to back up what you're saying

While we are told keeping the sport clean on the pitch is

a priority, we know steroids are an issue off the pitch too.

It's easy to see it's common throughout Wales - there are

Here in Swansea, the number of steroid users going to

needle exchanges has almost doubled over the past three years.

Public health Wales have told us it's becoming endemic in society,

but we know this isn't a new problem.

In 1993 Week In Week Out investigated steroid use

in Wales - the programme spoke to former weight lifter John Burns.

They start them off on five, six times the prescribed dose.

22 years later and John is in the same gym talking about

When everybody comes to Swansea on a weekend

there's lads coming from the valleys all around and you see these shapes

You look in any magazine you see people with great physiques

But Steve says for him it was all about being a better player.

I noticed very rapidly that I put on weight quickly,

my strength levels increased and my general sports performance

Did it make much difference to you as a rugby player?

It made a massive difference to me as a rugby player, I was fitter,

faster, stronger in a very short space of time.

I think each individual's motivation is different and I think...

When we're talking about a doping athlete or

an athlete who chooses to dope, I think what everybody forgets in this

And whether that is health consequences.

Whether that's the impact it can have on your family.

About the people around you, about your livelihood, your job

You may be able to return to the sport two four years later, but

is anybody ever going to see you as anything other than the individual

John won a gold medal at the Commonwealth Games in 1982.

He was clean but he saw his sport ruined by drug taking scandals.

Well what you saw there in the late '70s and gathered momentum

and that involved weightlifters getting caught, justifiably.

But that didn't just mean the individual was castigated, it meant

If in the likes of rugby there's some hanky-panky going on, if it

gets exposed and you get the media zeroing in on them and exposing

them, it's really going to make a lot of parents unlikely to encourage

Once you've lost your reputation, once the sport loses its reputation,

Since 2009 the number of people who have been caught and

banned in rugby is relatively small compared to the thousands who play.

Currently, there are 10 banned Welsh rugby Union players.

That's out of a total of 16 in Britain.

And according to the results on our questionnaire there are

100 players took part and around half knew a player who has doped.

15 out of those 100 players admitted to taking performance

We sent out a questionnaire to 100 players in Wales and 15 admitted

to taking performance enhancing drugs - that's quite worrying?

I'm trying to constantly rely on the stats I can see - Wales

rugby, UK doping - and you know that's where I'm putting my focus.

I'm sure there would be loads of ad-hoc surveys,

but the fact that we've caught people suggests there's an issue, so

my job now is to get closer to that and make sure we can become the best

While the WRU say they are committed to dealing with the problem, why

Professor Pitsoladis says at the moment, it's easy to cheat.

For the drugs that leave the system very quickly they can be very

confident that when they go for testing that they won't be caught

because the current testing won't be able to detect those drugs because

They're ahead of testing, using steroids that don't stay

Ever heard of players knowing about testers coming in?

Yeah of course, when they know testers coming into training

That definitely happens Even though Dan was caught,

he says most players feel they're able to dodge the testers.

Even though Dan was caught,

he says most players feel they're able to dodge the testers.

At my level you knew the testers were coming around potentially once

a year in pre-season and then maybe towards the end of the year they

Probably not and I believe that's why it's so massive

Not many people are going to get tested.

I've been massively singled out and made an example of,

Anyone that's spoke to me about it, they say you are one

of the unlucky ones that got caught and that's the best way to put it.

At Caerphilly coach Gareth Short has been at the club four years and says

Well, I've never seen anyone be drug tested at division two, three,

The results of our questionnaire tell a similar story.

Out of 100 players, only five have been tested in the past three years.

UK Anti-doping admits there needs to be continuous research

into catching cheats, but says resources are limited.

In an ideal world we'd be testing all sports all the time, but that's

not a reality for any anti-doping organisation in the world.

So it's about being really efficient and effective with

There's no set pattern to testing but do players get tipped off

All of our testing I wish to make clear is no advance notice.

Now, if there are individuals who for whatever reason either they're

getting their heads up from the support personnel within a

particular sport that we're coming because they happen to be the ones

receiving the doping control officers first, then we'll go

after those athlete support personnel because that is tantamount

With pressures on resources and possible cuts of up to 25% to

UK Anti-Doping's budget, it doesn't seem there will be more

So how does the sport plan to tackle the problem?

Lots of workshops, training of development officers.

I think we can use that to reach the players directly.

So they did 2,100 tests last year and they've introduced

in-competition testing this year, so I don't think it's

I think we could certainly spend more on education and just working

in a smarter fashion and doing more throughout the year.

So we can continually do more and we will, but it's always going

Union and league say they are working hard to educate players,

but Caerphilly's coach says the message hasn't reached his club.

The only education we get is from speaking to people

at your local gyms in our gym in the rugby club or here say,

if you are playing against somebody you think is on steroids - you talk

We've never had any kind of directive, anyone coming

down to talk about steroids what's acceptable, what's not acceptable.

In Merthyr the club run their own education programme.

They have been warning about the dangers of supplements

I keep hammering it home to them regularly.

And certainly since I've given the talk

the boys are much more aware of the websites you can look at to check

supplements and medications given to you by your doctor, for instance.

A lot of them have got the apps we've advised them to get

and they'll often come up to me in training or a match day and say I've

got new supplement, can we check it over, check it's been tested cos

there are certain ones that have been batch tested to make sure they

are clean and we do it together and some of them are proactively

Three weeks after our cameras filmed here at Merthyr, another one

Owen Morgan tested positive for an anabolic steroid.

He admitted breaking the rules and was given a four-year ban.

The club told us that any player who decides to cheat has no place

Steve feels there should be more education but says if a player wants

The problem you've got is professional sport and the pressure

that's sort of put on players to be fitter, faster and stronger,

you're never ever, ever going to be able to get rid of performance

There's always going to be new ways to get around the testing, so you

can educate players as much as you want about it, but you know if

a young rugby players going to get a professional contract from taking

performance enhancing drugs they're going to use them.

If someone had taken you aside when you were younger

and talked more about side effects and educated you more

on the drugs would it have changed whether you used them or not?

When you're looking at a career in rugby and you're thinking.

"If I use, there's a possibility I'm going to get it" then no,

I think the prevention around education is key,

but for those who aren't convinced by that they ultimately will get

I'd much rather be in the prevention education space, but if it needs to

Michael Owen thinks to protect rugby's reputation authorities

If you get caught at the top level I think arguably you should face a

life ban because if you've cheated and deceived the supporters or taken

a contract from someone else you should probably get a life ban.

Prior to 2015 there was an extensive consultation with

the sports movement about what they thought were

appropriate sanctions There is a big debate about whether an athlete

should be given a second chance if they've made a genuine mistake.

And therefore my response would be that we are

living with a code at the moment that will be in existence for the

next four years and that is a debate which I'm sure will come up again.

When we go through another iteration of the World Anti-Doping Code.

The debate about bans continues, but Professor Pitsoladis is confident

his advances in testing mean athletes who think they are getting

As we move on to the next generation of anti-doping

tests when we can identify the trace the drug leaves behind they would

eventually be caught so the future is actually quite bright.

The world anti-doping agency has put into place really important changes,

like the fact that blood and urine samples are stored for ten years.

There can't be an athlete or a support team that's actually

cheating that can actually sleep comfortably at night.

At the moment, yes, they might be getting away with it, but what's

As a player who has been caught, Daniel faces years away

from rugby - time to decide whether he will ever play again.

If I could go back and change what I did, I would. I didn't need it. I

don't know what I'm going to do, if I will go back. For years seems a

long way away. Now

that I've looked into drugs in rugby players taking them I realised. And

I can't help but feel it's not being I don't want to see my sport go

the way of others I think

if people really want to cheat It was probably the wrong choice

and certainly if I was recommending anyone today, certainly

from the side effects I've had, I Some of these athletes if it is

at the highest level who are taking these drugs,

it's only a matter of time before their whole career collapses

and there may be a case like the Lance Armstrong case in elite rugby,

which would be awful for the sport.