Of 468 tests conducted on behalf of World Rugby by UK Anti-Doping (UKAD) prior to and during this year's Rugby World Cup, not one returned positive.
The testing programme took samples across all 20 participating teams at the World Cup with 200 in-competition samples and 268 out-of-competition samples collected.
That indicates that less than one third (200 in competition samples) of all 620 rugby players taking part in the World Cup were tested. Each country brought a 31-man squad to Wales and England.
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The testing programme included a mix of urine (317 samples collected) and blood (151). All samples were analysed by the Drug Control Centre at the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA)-accredited laboratory at King’s College, London with samples being stored for future re-analysis.
It is quite a turn around for the sport which in 2013 was one of the top offenders according to WADA, who collate all findings across sports from each of their accredited laboratories every year.
The WADA figures showed that rugby in 2013 had a 1.3 per cent rate of adverse findings which last year had dropped to .8 per cent.
World Rugby increased its targeted testing and education budget by nearly 30 per cent in 2015. The tournament testing programme was an extension of World Rugby’s existing anti-doping programme, which has seen more than 1,300 blood and urine tests undertaken across the teams in and out of competition between January and September.
"Doping is a major threat to the integrity of sport and World Rugby is committed to a prevention programme of targeted testing and global education to ensure that players at all levels understand the performance and health importance of maintaining a level playing field for all," said World Rugby Chairman Bernard Lapasset.
“Our Rugby World Cup 2015 programme was based on intelligence-led testing and reflects our commitment to ensure that we are ahead of the curve in this area. While there were no adverse findings before, or during, Rugby World Cup 2015 that doesn’t mean we can become complacent as to the risks. That is why we have increased our budget in this important area and committed to storing samples for potential further analysis.”
