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Sam Chalmers steroid case raises tough questions for Scottish rugby

By John BeattieBBC Scotland

Last updated on .From the section Rugby Unioncomments106

Rugby

Scottish rugby suffered two body blows this week and, rather like boxer Ricky Burns who "drew" with his opponent after getting one heck of a hiding from opponent Raymundo Beltran, it's a little battered, a little broken and in need of time off the canvas.

It's hard to tell which blow took us more by surprise, the first ever positive steroids test in the history of Scottish rugby, or the fact that and think it's unfair that so many Scottish, Welsh and Irish teams qualify for the Heineken Cup from a league without relegation.

But let's start with to bulk up and get on in rugby, and leave the Heineken Cup for another day.

The public statement made by Sam Chalmers, son of one of our finest ever players Craig, is that he is sorry and that he got the stuff off the internet. It has shades of the convenient "lone wolf" theory about it. Was he the only player to get this stuff? Did he talk to other players about it?

Here is my thinking: I buy the argument that players are under pressure to get big. I buy the argument that players are under pressure to get heavier too. The rugby pitch has stayed the same size for 150 years while humans have changed. Rugby is more about going through people than round them now.

What I don't buy is that players are under pressure to buy steroids. It's cheating. The moment you buy the things you are cheating. You know it's not allowed. You are hoping the drug testers never get to you.

Some players may have contemplated taking steroids but chosen not to do so. If you're not big enough then choose another profession. It's not a game for all shapes and sizes any more.

Coaches involved in age-group rugby tell me that weight training and supplements appear to be going hand in hand. Young players go to the gym after taking supplements, they drink supplements during their training, and immediately afterwards.

Perhaps they are being indoctrinated into thinking that there is no way to do this consuming food alone. Maybe, just maybe, the logical next step from that is that artificial aids help, and the last resort - and illegal - artificial aid is your steroid of choice.

So is it possible to get big enough taking food alone?

The IRB has its latest drug test figures on its website.external-link It states: "The IRB carried out 1,542 tests both in and out of competition in 2012, across all IRB tournaments and events, including the HSBC Sevens World Series, Rugby World Cup 2015 qualifiers, men's and women's Tests and Age Grade Rugby.

"The programme saw a total of 21 anti-doping rule violation cases, equating to 1.36% of the IRB's entire programme."

That means around 1.4% of elite level players take drugs and try to get away with it. Some of them, you can see from the website, were caught taking the steroid favoured by both Sam Chalmers and disgraced Canadian sprinter Ben Johnson, stanozolol.

The 2011 Word Anti-Doping Agency figures, also available on the IRB website, show there were 5,553 drug tests globally in rugby in 2011, and 61 violations within them - just over 1%.

My guess is that there are more chancing it lower down the leagues, or in that scramble to get into the system - but I don't know.

When I was in South Africa covering the 1995 Rugby World Cup I wrote then what I repeat now - that the biggest growth in requests at GPs in Capetown nearly 20 years ago was from schoolboys wanting prescriptions for steroids. They were often accompanied by parents.

Could this happen here?

Sam Chalmers was in the most susceptible group, which is young lads who want to get into professional, or at least top-level, rugby.

It's going to be tough on him. But life's not easy. It wasn't easy for the players and coaches in the "Bloodgate" affair, or in the various eye-gouging allegations, nor for the other 60-odd rugby players caught by the IRB taking drugs or tampering with their samples.

This is a test. He does his time and then he gets back in the game.

I will leave you with this thought: I bet you he wasn't alone in this. And I bet there are younger players than Sam Chalmers who haven't been caught.

What do you think? Are there pressures on players to take steroids?

You can follow John Beattie on Twitter @bbcjohnbeattieexternal-link

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106 comments

  • Comment posted by User0424414496, at 15:52 16 Sep 2013

    Sad, but if you cheat, you must take the consequences.

  • Comment posted by jpr993, at 13:40 16 Sep 2013

    I am 18 years old, I play loosehead prop for my local team. My dream is to play for Scotland. However, I am 5ft 10, 15 and a half stone 9% bodyfat, and fairly quick for a prop. I am a much better scrummager than the 6ft 4 19st fat monsters that are picked over me, even though I am just as strong as them ! It makes me angry that players are picked for superior size rather than skill.

  • Comment posted by User0302385138, at 13:12 16 Sep 2013

    A huge systemic problem. Size now trumps all. Young players who have all the skills and who have played since they were tots find themselves superseded by prematurely oversized kids. The coaches pick on size and hope that the skill comes later. The result is fewer Shane Williams and many more Alex Cuthberts.

    Just the physique and "look" of many players now tells you something odd is going on!

  • Comment posted by User0302385138, at 13:23 16 Sep 2013

    Surely the idea that players who "aren't big enough should find a new profession" is against everything that rugby used to stand for and is a huge temptation to cheat. The "size" arms race is accelerating and skills are suffering.

    Is the end game something like NFL with freakish-sized players playing Route 1 brain-damage rugby? Are we already there?

    Who has the courage to take this on?

  • Comment posted by offside flanker, at 11:58 16 Sep 2013

    Today's impact game invites the use of steroids and bulk-enhancers. If Chalmers is naturally a similar build to his father then he will be a fairly slight man. In the 80s and early 90s that did not matter much (look at Stuart Barnes and Craig Chalmers as egs). However today's fly halves are expected to tackle/be tackled by players regularly over 16 stones, the pressure to be big/bulk up is intense

  • Comment posted by User0487288033, at 22:39 16 Sep 2013

    The new idea of big is better will not explain PEDs in rugby. They will have been around for donkeys years, well before size was everything. In pro sport is inconceivable to think that drug taking is restricted to cycling and athletics. Testing in every sport needs to start earlier (16 upwards) and be more thorough. Joey Barton has said they don't test for blood doping in football at all!

  • Comment posted by Fuzzy Duck, at 10:15 17 Sep 2013

    15....What do you make of the body growth in people like James Haskell, Courtney Lawes and Botha?

  • Comment posted by User0216075704, at 20:39 16 Sep 2013

    Sorry, meant English and French

  • Comment posted by JY, at 10:38 16 Sep 2013

    Yes, of course there are likely to be others. You can bet your house that if South African boys were under pressure to bulk up 20 years ago, the pressure on boys here today is greater. Sadly today's professional game is all about size and worse, all professional sport means money takes priority over players' well-being and that all too often means drugs.

  • Comment posted by rememberscarborough, at 12:45 16 Sep 2013

    I'm absolutely astonished that there have been so few cases in the other form of "football" i.e. soccer. Given the rewards available it's inconceivable that there won't have been greedy individuals who won't have tried to get "an edge".

    This also applies to the likes of golf and tennis where the rewards are huge so it's about time the level of testing was improved over all sports.

  • Comment posted by User0782045094, at 21:49 16 Sep 2013

    My experience of US universities was that there was a massive pressure to get bigger quicker and this was already happening at high school stage. This was not just american football but a lot of other sports as well. Surely we are not surprised that the trend is over here as well. Unfortunately it is a battle which is impossible to win as there are massive rewards at stake.

  • Comment posted by User0426628691, at 15:47 16 Sep 2013

    Great blog.
    The point seems to have been missed that you dont need to be taking steroids to benefit from their gains. By this i mean you can take steroids while at lower levels in sport, get the gains that come with higher levels of HGH to aid muscle growth and reduce recovery time and then stop taking them. its not like those gains magically disappear as soon as you stop taking the injections.

  • Comment posted by The Academy, at 12:54 16 Sep 2013

    I think there are certain sports which are happy with the way things are without wanting to raise the issue of drugs. Cycling has taken a hit for years as being dirty but they are 1 of the only sports to have a top class testing system. Would Football, both rugbys (fuzzy duck!) etc want to risk sponsorship, reputation etc to ensure their sport is clean? I'm not so sure.

  • Comment posted by Rob Dawson, at 20:42 16 Sep 2013

    Great article.

    While the "pressure to perform" is all too prevalent in our society the internet is rendering both "knowledge" and drugs more accessible.

    Sadly, the use of steroids is more common than we would like to believe with some 43% of people accessing needle exchanges not heroin users but anabolic steroid users.

    Perhaps this case may give all in sport cause to pause for thought.

  • Comment posted by User0302385138, at 10:08 17 Sep 2013

    Rugby is just one manifestation of the size obsession in sport. In cricket, bowlers are 6'6" now. Tennis players the same. It's down to sporting bodies being dominated by soulless sports scientists who know it's simple biomechanics and select anyone tall enough, provided that they can walk and chew gum at the same time, and train them up.

    We have Americanised! You have to be a freak to take part!

  • Comment posted by GlosterJock, at 20:22 16 Sep 2013

    I have coached Mini to Under 18s. Doping is rife. You only have to look at the shape and size of some kids. You get to know who is on what and who supplies it. A fairly recent Under 16's County Cup final in my area would have caused huge embarrassment if drug tasting had taken place. Chalmers is very unlucky in my opinion

  • Comment posted by User0894053546, at 15:00 16 Sep 2013

    The IRB said there were 1,542 drug tests worldwide in 2012. Why so few?
    I say there should be at least 1542 tests every week.

  • Comment posted by Soreshins, at 19:50 16 Sep 2013

    Rugby used to be a game for everybody - there were positions for big lads, fat boys, whippets and everyone inbetween. Now it's turning into a game for the few percent lucky enough to have the physical size. A large number of the greatest players wouldn't even get a look in these days because they'd be regarded as too small, and it's a shame that skill is being steamrollered by power.

  • Comment posted by daggersfan3, at 15:56 16 Sep 2013

    I was discussing this with some friends who I play rugby with but we dont play at a level where players get tested. One thing we were asking was whether forwards get tested more than backs in the professional game?

    I know size is important now but there are still so many players under 5'11", amazing players, Carter, Genia, Wilkinson etc

  • Comment posted by User0878062225, at 22:19 17 Sep 2013

    shouldnt all palyers be tested at the end of each game to make sure that there is no cheating? Or a random 25% of players after a game. That is the only way i can see there being a real deterant. the pressure is so high that the risk of getting caught needs to outweigh it to make it fair for those who would never go there.

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