THE FRENCH RUGBY union team was a vast consumer of amphetamines in the 1980s — including in a famous win over the All Blacks – according to a new book.
“They each had their little pill in front of their plates for the meal before the match,” French team doctor of the time, Jacques Mombet, is quoted as saying in the book.
Mombet said the drug taking was most obvious when France played New Zealand at Nantes in 1986, in a match called ‘the battle of Nantes’ for its ferocity which resulted in All Black legend Wayne Shelford being knocked out and losing several teeth in the process, and beat the All Blacks 16-3.
“The Blacks realised that their opponents, unrecognisable from the previous week, were loaded,” Mombet said in the book by investigative journalist Pierre Ballester.
France’s rugby establishment did not immediately react to the allegations.
Ballester wrote a 2004 book on disgraced cycling champion Lance Armstrong in which he was among the first to publicly make drug allegations against the seven-time Tour de France champion.
His rugby book, “Rugby a Charges, l’enquete choc” (The case against rugby) is released in France on 5 March.
That’ll be the tip of the iceberg…
And you know that because…?
Looks like Paul kimmage might be right,
Kimmage initially threw muck at Irish rugby with assumptions based on French rugby, instead of looking for the truth.
Rugby was not clean in the past and is probably still dodgy in many teams (3 SA players failed tests in Dublin…).
To me a lot of the top Irish players have followed a consistent path of strength development from school (Heaslip, Healy, POC, Toner, etc.). If Toner used drugs, he would have bulked up in 1 year not over 4 years.
However internationally, we really should have top pro teams being completely open about the legal products and conditioning methods used, so experts can confirm the reasonableness or question the feasibility of strength & conditioning).
I think the IRB should insist on transparency for the good of the game and protection of players.
Alan.
Kimmage didn’t really throw muck though. He was baited in an interview. If you watch the original interview that kicked this whole thing off, he’s talking about France and keeps being asked, “But is it a problem in Ireland?”, and eventually he basically said that of course the odds would suggest that there would be some people at some level of the game using drugs.
Of course, the headlines all had to read KIMMAGE SAYS DRUGS ARE EVERYWHERE IN IRISH RUGBY, to which rugby players and fans naturally reacted angrily.
Faster than a cheating frog.
How long before people actually listen to Kimmage? Proved totally right in cycling. Now investigating a sport, with no conflict of interest, he once again finds himself bottom of the barrel.
People should probably listen to other journalists like Monsieur Ballester as well.
So something that may have happened in France before the majority of current players were born also the game was amateur and there was no such thing as a proper testing means Paul Kimmage is right and its endemic in rugby today sorry but that’s bull shit.
Imagine “something that may have happened” became “something did happen” just because a sport turns pro doesn’t mean that the ills of the past have stopped.
And if it did happen 30 years ago fair enough but Kimmages thinly veiled accusations are about modern rugby so even if this is true It is irrelevant .Do you still find Germans dodgy because of their history?
Kimmage hasnt uncovered anything though. He just keeps sniffing around for stories.
Yes.. Yes I do James
Me too they’re so serious..
Hitler was a bit of craic before he died though… Taken too young. RIP Adolph
If he’s right of course he should he should be listened to,time will tell though
The Munster team that beat the All Blacks were on coke
Ha that’s good
I’m pretty sure several of them preferred Tanora
Kimmage is vindicated. Some figures in Irish rugby football will be exposed at some point too – just you wait and see…
You need to cast out again there robsonkeane.
Kimmage has lots of smoke but no fire yet. He will of course find drugs in rugby cheating is part of human nature, but to suggest there is a systematic drugs system in rugby akin to cycling nuts.
Everybody know what was going on in cycling it was not a shock to anybody.
Absolutely right.
Breakingnews: Irish rugby player caught taking asthma drugs and failed test (about 10 years as go).
I suspect that there is systematic doping problems in some pro rugby teams, I just think that the evidence would indicate that Irish rugby is generally clean of doping.
The French ex international who raised the issue rightly pointed to unnatural body shapes and muscle development. The Irish props mainly do have the layers of fat that he said was missing from French props.
Bout time twas highlighted wud imagine it was rife back in the day…lomu with his kidney problems and all those south african lads suffering serious health problems in their late 30s and 40s…wud imagine not as prevalent these days with more knowledge about the risks better science
Lomu was massive by birth. He was almost the same size at 14 in Schools rugby as he was playing against England in 1995. He developed his kidney issues before he even made the NZ 7′s team.
30 year’s ago pre professional era and pre drug testing
Hardly a smoking gun
If true a great shame as I looked up to that France team much the same as I looked up to the Brazil football team of ’82.
That said, as far as I know Kimmage has not accused anybody of taking drugs in rugby, and has at this stage merely pointed to a book on the subject written by a former French international.
Apparently Kimmages next big scoop is an expose on drug use amongst heavy metal band members in the 80s and 90s …..supposed to be true
Lomus kidney failure had nothing to do with drugs. There is an alarming high rate of MNS and nerve degenerative diseases among ex South African rugby players from the late 90s
In fairness white South Africans werent working on a very wide gene pool
http://youtu.be/iUGONZSaNM8 – if you have a spare 82 mins to watch it
Quelle Surprise!!! Well that helps explain Philippe Saint Andrés inability to connect and mental detachment!!!
Kimmage has been banging this drum now for months. The figures are available of who and how many, took what and when, be it social and recreational or performance enhancing drugs.
Its time he did the leg work and make a statement or shut up, or maybe he did and he can’t ?