Weeks before Ireland face New Zealand in Test matches in Dublin and Chicago, the All Black brand has taken a battering as three of their best- known players have become embroiled in controversy.
The poster boy of the sport, Dan Carter, who was last year's World Rugby player of the year and a World Cup winner, has found himself in the middle of a doping scandal along with his former All Black team-mate Joe Rokocoko and Argentinean winger Juan Imhoff.
The positive finding for a steroid reported by French daily sports paper L'Equipe comes a day after New Zealand scrumhalf Aaron Smith admitted to a tryst with a woman in a disabled toilet at Christchurch Airport and was suspended for one Test match.
Rugby, which has not experienced much success at catching drug cheats at the elite end of the sport, did not return one positive test prior to and during last year's Rugby World Cup in Britain. Carter, who is the highest paid player in the game, returned the positive sample following the final of this year's French Top 14 competition, where he won the man-of-the-match award.
All three play for Parisian club Racing 92, who beat Toulon 29-21 on June 24th. According to L'Equipe, it was after the final that the French anti-doping agency, Agence Francaise de Lutte Contre le Dopage (AFLD), conducted their tests.
While there does not appear to be any dispute about the drug being in Carter’s system, there is increasing confusion about whether or not he used a therapeutic use exemption (TUE), which under certain circumstances allows athletes to use banned substances.
Racing 92 have said in a statement that they did not require a TUE.
“It was treatment administered in an authorised manner, given in response to a proven condition several days before the Top 14 final and not requiring a TUE,” said the French club.
Medical protocols
“All the medical procedures on the players reported by the media were carried out in total respect of the national and international anti-doping rules,” it continued. “All the medical protocols [were] clear” and there had been “complete transparency”.
“We understand the stir caused by the word ‘corticosteroid’. This word carries strong emotional implications as it relates to immoral and illegal conduct. It also relates to known, legal practices that are justified by the medical profession.”
Legitimate
However, Simon Porter, a spokesman from Carter's New Zealand-based management company, said the use of the corticosteroid, which caused the urine sample to test positive, was for legitimate medical reasons.
"We were reassured that there was nothing to worry about, that there was no wrongdoing, that there was no case to answer for," Porter told TVNZ.
“It’s just a therapeutic use. Cortisone is a common drug used to treat pain and inflammation.”
Coming on the back of Tour de France winner Bradley Wiggins being forced to defend his use of what critics have called strategic use of TUEs (which has developed into a wide-ranging probe into drug abuse), Carter has a case to answer.
It would be expected that the club and especially the medical team in Racing 92 would know if three of their key players required a TUE before taking part in the biggest match of their season.
Strict criteria
According to the World Anti Doping Agency (Wada), athletes are only permitted to take a TUE under strict criteria and under supervision by a medical doctor. For a TUE to be granted, the athlete would have to experience significant health problems in the event of not taking the prohibited drug.
The drug could not produce performance-enhancement and there must be no reasonable therapeutic alternative.
L'Equipe said that once alerted by the AFLD, the French Rugby Federation have 40 days to investigate the players.
If the probe fails to find a medical reason for the reported corticosteroid use, they could become the biggest names in the sport to face disciplinary action.
