Highlights from the All Blacks' "Battle of Nantes" test against France in 1986.

A new book on sports doping claims French rugby players consumed amphetamines for their famous "Battle of Nantes" win over the All Blacks in 1986 where Buck Shelford had his scrotum ripped open and lost teeth.

Investigative journalist Pierre Ballester, who published a revelatory book on disgraced cyclist Lance Armstrong in 2004 called LA Confidential, has turned his attentions to rugby with a book titled Rugby a Charges, l'enquete choc (The case against rugby). The book is due to be released in France next week.

Extracts have appeared in French media and they paint a dark picture of rugby before the professional era.

Ballestar interviews Jacques Mobet, the French team doctor during the 1980s who had worked with the Agen club before that.

"They each had their little pill in front of their plates for the meal before the match," Mombet, is quoted as saying in the book, generalising on the state of the French team preparations.

He was more specific on the famous match in Nantes where France rebounded from losing 19-7 in Toulouse.

"The [All] Blacks realised that their opponents, unrecognisable from the previous week, were loaded," Mombet was reported as saying of the game France won 16-3.

Notorious hard man Shelford still remembers it as the toughest match of his career and has admitted to some suspicions about the French players that could never be proved.

Mombet reportedly suggested that match led to the International Rugby Board actively targeting drug abuse after they were discreetly informed.

But he said the practice was common at the time under a lack of control and preventative measures against drugs.

"Amphetamines have always existed in rugby and elsewhere," Mombet said.

"In the 1970s, entire teams were taking ... I remember a championship match between Fleurance and Marmande I believe, in which the referee was scared! The players were all foaming at the mouth. He had to stop the game," Mombet reportedly said.

The French Rugby Union has not reacted to the allegations in the book extracts that also look at rugby doping through to the current times.

SHELFORD RECALLS

Just last week Shelford was fronting a Tough Bastards campaign aimed at helping New Zealand farmers survive tough times. The Nantes match was raised in a radio interview, given the pain he endured that included having to have his scrotum stitched and returning to action before eventually leaving the field dazed and bloodied.

"I went off because I was concussed as well, and had a few teeth kicked out of my mouth. That was the toughest game I played in," Shelford told the Farming Show segment on Radio Sport.

He said alarm bells had rung before the match.

"When I walked out the changing room and I stood beside them and their eyes were just huge … it was like they had been on uppers for the last hour or so. They just looked like they were high as kites.

"I can't prove that. Notwithstanding that, they played very well … [it was] the most physical, most tough game I'd ever played in because of the way they kept coming and coming.

"No matter what we tried to do they just smashed us and smashed us back. France is a very tough place to tour. Not fond memories of that game, but I have fond memories of playing for the All Blacks."