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A rugby player has described how he was encouraged by people in his club to take performance-enhancing drugs before getting an unprompted phone call from a supplier.

Today we reveal the extent of the drugs problem in Welsh rugby.

As part of our investigation, we have:

Spoken to players, ex-players and coaches who've described just how big they believe Welsh rugby's drugs problem to be;

Heard stories of players being warned to stay away, or leave, training sessions because the "red coats" (the name given by players to UKAD drug testers) are due;

Heard Welsh rugby described as "infamous" for its doping problem by someone on the other side of the world;

Heard the concerns of a cardiologist over the "growing epidemic of image- and performance-enhancing drug use" in south Wales.

"I was told I had to put on weight and there were different methods that could help," says one currently banned Welsh rugby player, speaking on condition of anonymity.

"I'd jumped from a low level and got offered [the chance] to play at a higher level but I wasn't really ready."

Those "different methods" were performance-enhancing drugs. And the people pushing them were involved with the coaching setup at his club.

It wasn't long before he got the call.

"Someone phoned me up and said that I might be looking for something and that's how it happened," said the player.

"I didn't ring them, they rang me."

This is one player's story but, from what we've been told, it's one that just scratches at the surface of Welsh rugby's relationship with drugs, particularly at grassroots level.

There are 70 doping bans currently being served in the UK across all sports - 24 of them are rugby union players, more than any other sport in the UK (cycling, perhaps the most maligned sport when it comes to the stigma of doping, has just six).

Eight of those are Welsh. You can see who they are here. One of them, Maredydd Francis, has just been added to the list, when the captain of RGC 1404, a Principality Premiership team, tested positive for a cocktail of drugs including nandralone and testosterone.

An open secret

The use of performance-enhancing drugs, or PEDs, in Welsh rugby has long been something of an open secret.

"In the lower leagues, there are boys on it but it's not for performance, it's for image," says Bonymaen RFC player Nick Clancy, who was hit with a two-year ban in 2014 after testing positive for anabolic agents in an out-of-competition test.

"When you go up the levels, it's more performance.

"From Premiership players to regional players, there would have been a time in their life where they were on the gear to get where they are. The physical stature... there would have been some point when they've been on it.

"You know who's on it and you know who isn't."

(Image: Robert Melen)

That is a recurring theme, as is the claim that in many cases the problem is down to image as much as performance.

One former player, who played through the age grade system in Wales, played semi-professional rugby and coached at National League level, said the use of steroids in rugby in Wales was "a huge problem, particularly at lower levels".

"You've got all this issue around player safety and tackling but, for me, there's a bigger issue at the lower levels where you've got massive men, training in a gym all week, pumping themselves with steroids and coming on to the rugby pitch at 18 or 19 stones. For your normal man, that's just a huge bloke," he said, speaking on the condition of anonymity.

"It's inherent in the sport at the moment, it's almost condoned. It's not a case of it being frowned upon, it's very much a case of 'Yeah, he's on the gear' and it's quite clear who is on gear by the make-up of their bodies."

Another player who also came through the age grades and played semi-pro before coaching at National League level, said: "Looking from the outside in, because I'm not in the game any more, the problem I see is at the lower levels it's becoming a dangerous, aggressive sport.

"I wouldn't know if it's across all teams but you could stand 100 players in a row and pick out 10 who are on performance enhancing drugs just by looking at them. Is it across the sport? Probably. Do I know for sure? No."

And the open secret extends well beyond the Welsh border.

Richard Ings, who was CEO of the Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority between 2005 and 2010, said: "Welsh rugby is a red flag in regard to the number of doping offences. Indeed, Welsh rugby is infamous for doping offences."

Why are players doping?

For some, like the player mentioned at the start of this piece, it's about making themselves bigger, cheating the system in a bid to improve at the sport.

As one former player attests: "If you're on the edge of the Premiership and you're thinking 'What do I need?' there's a lot of people out there that would say 'Take this step, this'll help you out'."

But it's not simply limited to getting ahead in rugby. Nick Clancy says his reasons were different.

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"I had a big injury halfway through the season," he said.

"I tore my scapula in half. Obviously, I'm self-employed and I had to get back into work quicker. So that's how I got into it.

"To get to my shoulder, they had to go into four compound muscles around my shoulder blade so I needed to strengthen them again. So what I took attacks the muscles and rebuilds them.

"I got back fit and went to go down to Neath to play. I was training well and feeling fit, having recovered.

"I then got tested and I thought it was all out of me. But it was still in my system and it came up in the test."

Others pointed to wider cultural and social issues and the extreme approach to body image that has become an issue in certain parts of Wales, often the more deprived areas.

Dr Nishat Siddiqi, a Cardiff cardiologist, said: "This phenomenon of using PEDs is more of a cultural thing. The attitudes of what is physically desirable in men have changed.

"The majority of these drug users aren't in fact rugby players, they're people who go to the gym. They want quick results.

"They start going to the gym, lifting weights. Someone will come up to them, give them a few tips. They establish trust and form a few friendships.

"They take supplements. The use of these drugs isn't perceived as illegal drug use. You get really fast results and once you get results you have to keep using to maintain them.

"It's a form of body dysmorphia disorder. It's a huge impact on the NHS and the lives of these people. I've had patients who have had marriage and relationship breakdowns.

"Weirdly, it's a big problem in south Wales. One user said that across the world amongst bodybuilders, south Wales is the hotspot to go to if you want tips on how to get on these drugs."

In an earlier article in the New Statesman, describing a patient with a "grossly enlarged heart" as a result of his steroid use, she said there is "a growing epidemic of image- and performance-enhancing drug use in the region where I work".

(Image: Getty Images)

The suggestion that this problem is more prominent in certain areas of Wales than others was repeated anecdotally by other people we spoke to. In one story we heard, a spectator who watches a team in Ceredigion told how a certain visiting team in Carmarthenshire had players noticeably bigger than theirs.

"At semi-pro level, particularly in these Valleys clubs - and I don't mean to be disparaging about Valleys clubs - I think if they did a blanket test of all the squad they wouldn't be able to put a team out the week after," said a former player.

"There are some obvious signs. It's a bit of a stigma, but generally they tend to also be tanned up with white teeth and they're taking that body focus into a rugby match."

Another ex-player said: "Most of these guys look the same. There's a thing about rugby now, if you haven't got a sun tan, tattoos on your arms and you're not massive, you don't fit in.

"Half the guys aren't taking them for rugby, they're taking it for when they go on a stag do or a boys' holiday or when they stick a shirt on afterwards and they want to look good. But you're in an aggressive sport and taking something that's going to make you more aggressive."

Where do users get it?

Perhaps unsurprisingly, given how south Wales in particular is seen as a hotspot for them, steroids are easy to get hold of.

"If you gave me £100 and told me to go and buy X, Y and Z I could get it for you by next week," said a former player.

"You could go to a local gym and buy it there, the internet, go to needle drop-off centres to get needles."

Clancy has a similar tale: "I train in a gym and you can see the boys who are on it. You can get it from people they know. It's rife. You can get it. If you go the gym, it's available."

The problems with testing

UKAD (UK Anti-Doping) testers are known as "red coats" or "red jackets" for what they wear. And there are plenty of stories of them turning up at rugby clubs and players being told to make themselves scarce if they don't want to be tested.

"You've heard stories about drug testers turning up and players being told to go for a jog and not come back," said one former player.

"When we were playing, drug testers would turn up and you could see the boys who were twitching, they'd pull out before the game or they'd just be really nervous and praying they didn't get picked out. But because they only picked out two players per team you're very unlucky if you do get caught."

He added: "I've never ever seen a tester at lower levels, anything below Premiership."

Another said: "You hear loads of stories. People used to say 'The guys in the red coats are here' and you'd see half a dozen people go white in the face. They've got checks now and they can catch you up but back in the day you'd get told go for a run, jump over a river, go sick."

One former coach - an experienced ex-regional player - told us how, in his experiences at several clubs, there had been a naivety in the testing process which enabled coaches or team managers to inform players and give them the opportunity to leave if they wanted to avoid being tested.

What is the actual testing process? Who gets tested? A number of factors are taken into account, such as those who compete regularly at international level, whether they are professional or semi-pro, intelligence that UKAD has received and their recent performances. Also, athletes who are returning to competition after things like injury, suspension or even retirement are more likely to be tested. Additionally, for in-competition testing, a set number of players from each team will be selected at random. How are they tested? When a Doping Control Officer (DCO) arrives to retrieve a sample from an athlete they must ensure the athlete is informed of certain things, including their rights and responsibilities. The DCO is then required to observe the athlete at all times until he/she leaves the doping station following sample collection. The athlete will sign paperwork to acknowledge the situation. Prior to producing a urine sample, the athlete is given the option to select the equipment that will hold their urine and inspect it to ensure it has not been tampered with. The guidelines read that ‘the DCO shall ensure an unobstructed view of the sample leaving the athlete’s body and must continue to observe the sample until it is sealed.’ Once it has been confirmed that a sufficient amount of urine has been collected, the athlete then chooses their sample collection kit. The athlete themselves will then pour the urine into two different bottles - sample A and sample B - before ensuring both are securely sealed.

But, even with testing, it was suggested that one way around it is using drugs in pre-season as a way to bulk up.

"What a lot of the players at lower levels and semi-pro levels used to do was use the pre-season to pump the steroids into them over April, May, June, start pre-season in July, stop them, and then you almost have two months before any game starts and you have the risk of testers turning up," said a former player.

"I very rarely saw testers turn up in pre-season with us, it was only during games really. So you've got that window to bulk up, you're massive going into the season and sustain it through the season with weights.

"But at lower levels I'd imagine that just carries on throughout the year. There's no reason a player at lower levels would stop taking it because he's never going to be tested."

Asked if coaches know it's going on in their teams, he replied: "100%. Not just coaches, everyone in the club. It's totally just part of the game now. It's not frowned upon. Rugby clubs are struggling so much to put teams out they don't really care."

(This is an in-depth look at just how much teams are struggling to put teams out in grassroots Welsh rugby).

The health problems

The wider health implications are serious and profound.

Heavy acne, stunted growth in teenagers, osteoporosis and diabetes are all potential pitfalls of using PEDs. But they're not the most serious. PED use can lead to multi-organ failure, heart attacks, strokes, shrunken testicles, infertility, high blood pressure and osteoporosis. And there are the risks that come with sharing needles.

Dr Siddiqi said: "Initially, you can have problems with aggression. You can have mood disorders and depression. People can get psychotic.

"You can get heart failure, where your heart muscle stops working properly. What you find in these athletes are hearts that are abnormally chunky, prone to heart rhythm disturbances and potentially heart rhythm problems lead to death.

"These patients also get a higher amount of narrowing in their coronary arteries which can lead to heart attacks.

"You have a whole gamut of problems. Add on to that, you have to inject certain types of these drugs and that brings risks of diseases such as HIV or hepatitis that come from sharing needles or even vial of testosterone."

What are the drugs they're taking and what do they do? The vast majority of users wouldn't simply start by injecting testosterone. People tend to build themselves up slowly with nutritional or protein supplements. Then they may move onto testosterone and steroids. People who use steroids generally experience an increase in muscle strength very quickly. Muscle growth is speedier because of this heightened ability to lift heavier weights – meaning that people can train more often and for longer periods of time because of their improved recovery rate. Once they finish a course on steroids, there are other drugs they have to take to stimulate the body to complete its natural functions and counteract the high levels of testosterone which causes the body to switch off. That might mean taking other prescription-only drugs. Some of these drugs may include: amphetamines – to counteract feelings of deep depression and aid in fat loss

beta blockers – to counteract trembling

diuretics – to counteract fluid retention

human growth hormone – to stimulate the body's natural production of testosterone and counteract testicle shrinkage. This is known as polypharmacy - which is the concurrent use of multiple medications by patients. Unprescribed polypharmacy can be dangerous considering the side-effects of each drug and the nature in which they are secured without medical advice.

There's also the issue of the health risks to the other players involved - who may not necessarily be on PEDs.

Those who attended a recent dinner event recall Gareth Edwards giving a talk in which he suggested parents would be a big reason that participation in rugby goes down (though he was not talking in the context of drug use).

"When we grew up, mothers didn't really look at rugby as a dangerous activity but if I had kids I don't know whether I'd be happy with them going into these physical contests where there is a huge risk of injury," said a former player.

"If you're addicted to steroids and you're into your weights, fine. But you shouldn't be taking to the rugby field and putting other people's lives in jeopardy.

"You've got a standard rugby player at 5ft 11in and 13 stones and I just can't see how he can take the pitch against a 17-stone man and have a reasonable game and that's why we're just getting so many people not playing rugby any more, because they've just given up."

What happens next?

Naturally, the Welsh Rugby Union vehemently believes there is no place for doping in Welsh rugby.

WRU head of rugby operations, Julie Paterson, said: "We are committed to our anti-doping education and awareness programmes, we've increased our efforts to train a network of UKAD educators and advisors and club integrity officers to ensure players, coaches and athlete support personnel are well-informed on issues such as supplements, medications and anti-doping rules and are fully aware of their responsibilities in the matter.

“We want players to make good decisions both on and off the field, and the information is freely available for players to make these decisions. We hope that these measures, and the lengthy bans received by players who violate the rules, will help maintain fairness in the game which is one of the values of rugby on and off the pitch, and also reduce the risk of long-term bans which damage players' on and off-field careers, the reputation of all involved, not to mention the general health of players.”

Others have their own ideas on how to solve this problem.

"There's a real quick fix: some random samples of lower leagues, massive fines for the rugby clubs," said a former player.

"Maybe it's too big a problem to tackle. But it's something the WRU need to look at if they want to get participation levels up, because why would you send your kid to be exposed to that?"

Another ex-player said: "The governing bodies must test someone like Sam Warburton every month, twice a month. They test these top guys all the time. Yes, that's important.

"But if they shared this out slightly more, rather than concentrating on the elite, it only takes one in your club to get caught and you're looking over your shoulder.

"If you're playing for, say, a Third Division West side you might never see a tester so where's the risk? These guys can do as much damage as someone playing for RGC can but there's no risk to them."

UK Anti-Doping said it works closely with partners including the WRU to combat doping in sport. It says it operates a "risk-based, intelligence-led testing programme across more than 40 different sports" and said information and intelligence received from a variety of sources, including athletes, coaches, national governing bodies and the public, is "pivotal" to its success.

A UKAD spokesperson said: “Nearly half of all anti-doping rule violations (ADRVs) come about as a result of intelligence received by UKAD. We would therefore encourage anyone with any information, however small or seemingly insignificant, to contact us. This can be done anonymously if required.

“It’s not only those athletes who cheat that we would look to catch. Anyone involved in sport who is found to be facilitating the use of any prohibited substance or method by an athlete, including assisting, encouraging, aiding, abetting, conspiring, covering up or any other type of intentional complicity involving an ADRV or any attempted ADRV, would also be liable to be banned from playing or working in sport.”