I don't think there is any doubt that players are juiced in rugby, imo England are possibly the worst culprits in the Northern Hemisphere, though they are following the NZ/Aus/SAF leads. It's unnatural. Rugby is going the way of american football which is tainted beyond recovery.
I'm with Tommy Tiernan, let's have a drugged olympics for the craic. See Usain Bolt not pull up and worry about being caught.
France aren't far off. Wales seem to be slipping down that avenue too.
Watch the U20 games in the Six Nations. The Irish, Italian and Scottish players look their age, but the French and English guys are just monsters and you just can't get that big at that age without some sort of help.
I think South Africa and New Zealand could plead that it's genetics at work. These South African kids are growing up on farms and I think the polynesian body type just tends to be a bit stockier and more robust, particularly in the teenage years. You'll notice the proportion of pacific islanders in the NZ sides tends to decline as they get older.
Don't see how you can give a pass to some countries and not others, especially given the rumours. France and England have a much bigger playing pool, so bigger u20's isn't definitive to me.
There's more money and more incentive in other field sports. Follow and check out giggs boson on twitter for background on the sport that has us on this website!
Oh, I'm not giving a pass to some countries, I'm saying it's more prevalent in some countries but happening everywhere. Unless you're addressing Spuds.
Even accounting for bigger playing populations, and the fact size is more important at age group-level, there's no reason why every single player should be bigger than his opposite number and I see these guys are they are physically every bit the match of the 30 year olds they're playing with. You get your freaks like George North, but you shouldn't have 15 of them.
Both of ye really - the saffies are probably the most rumoured about! Genetically, most of their players are west European.
Yeah, but the majority of their players are farm boys, think John Hayes rather than Ronan O'Gara.
I don't think it matters about the standing of the sport in a country. 2 Croatian rugby players failed drugs tests (for PEDs) and the younger one was plying his trade in France at the time. I've yet to see or hear it, though he supposedly gave a long interview about being put under pressure by the team doctor to "get with the program". If I didn't know him or the guys he works out with in Croatia I'd have believed him.
I even look askew at football now, these supposed "kids" coming into the game from Academies are massive!
Russian rider caught with GW501516 in his system. This drug was never passed for human use as it causes cancer. It helps burn off fat and get weight down. Depressing stuff.
#NeverStopNotGivingUp
Even football? Football is high up on the lists of crap testing/ lots of money/ lots of benefits from doping. This weeks european games show the impact that increased stamina can have.
I really don't get the focus on the sizes of players coming out of academies - there's other variables that come into play at that age, so that's not where I'd be looking for indicators tbh. For a start the size they went in - they could be selected and fasttracked because of their size. Players bulking up fast, returning from injury ridiculously quickly, late bloomers who late in their career are better physically than they ever were before are better indicators of something that needs investigation than the size of young guys just starting. For example, Leinster have in the past scouted players just because of their size who'd never even played rugby.
Last edited by Macy; 12/04/2013 at 8:06 AM.
If you attack me with stupidity, I'll be forced to defend myself with sarcasm.
Macy, by massive I don't mean just body build, of course improved nutrition etc will make current generations bigger than before, but the energy and activity just surpasses anything that I could say was normal. Football has always been tainted by doping of some sort, not just recently, and the higher up you go the more you get, the Spanish (it can be argued) have it to an art form, though who can tell for sure. Nobody worth much will be pulled up.
I was told a very honest story from a former director of ours regarding peds, she simply said - imagine you have a serve coming at you at 150kmph, over such a short distance, the best trained professional will block it back, but watch the top players, they'll adjust, move and play a shot back - which puts them past the middle rankers. She said that it wasn't just juicing up in the off season that does this, she claimed that players were taking things to "pep them up" before matches. It could be true, who knows, but when you see so many young athletes passing away before time....
Some doping in Horse Racing: http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/horse-racing/22258011
Again, hardly a surprise.
#NeverStopNotGivingUp
Hmm. Horsemeat in supermarket burgers and lasagne. Steroids in horses. Alberto Contador was telling the truth all along!
While I love the sport and love horses I'm not shocked by the presence of performance enhancing drugs in the sport. The real shock here is the fact this has been uncovered at a stable as large and elite as Godolphin. I'm glad they have been found out and exposed but I can't understand how they could be so naïve here. Waiting for the story to unravel.
On drugs in sport. I'll post the link to a fascinating documentary called the 'Record Fakers' on BBC 5 Live at the minute which examines the legacy of state control of sport in East Germany pre 1989. Very harrowing and sad tales of crimes against humanity.
Find me on Twitter @ImRedLen
A link to the BBC programme on doping in track and field.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode...Record_Fakers/
Find me on Twitter @ImRedLen
Enjoyed this piece on doping in cycling: http://crankpunk.com/2013/04/25/a-sl...what-the-hell/
#NeverStopNotGivingUp
@Giggs_Boson is a decent journalist to follow on twitter regarding the Fuentes situation. He just posted:
"Spanish anti-doping is appealing Judge's decision to destroy the evidence. Bags held in storage until appeal is heard."
https://twitter.com/giggs_boson/stat...69165745639424
Crazy ruling!
I like high energy football. A little bit rock and roll. Many finishes instead of waiting for the perfect one.
Completely ridiculous ruling. If it looks like a cover up, walks like a cover up...
If you attack me with stupidity, I'll be forced to defend myself with sarcasm.
Hardly surprising unfortunately. Spain has a pretty abysmal record on the doping front. Hopefully the appeal is successful and the documentation at least becomes public.
Vijay Singh gets away with it: http://espn.go.com/golf/story/_/id/9...r-antler-spray
Deco tests positive: http://www.goal.com/en-gb/news/2931/...s&ICID=HP_HL_1
#NeverStopNotGivingUp
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