In an interview with thecity.ie, Paul Kimmage has compared the position that rugby is in now, to the pre-Festina era of cycling.
Kimmage spoke of the investigations undertaken by Laurent Benezech who has spoken about doping in rugby. The Frenchman recently published a book, Ou Sont tes Valeurs, and Kimmage described the book as a “brilliant expose on doping”.
Benezech charts the weights of french rugby players from year to year, and has noted that some players gained an astonishing 20 kilos of muscle over the course of just one season. Benezech believes that the human body simply cannot accomplish naturally.
Kimmage feels that there are no positive tests because, “because the IRB, the governing body aren’t interested in this (tests), the same way cycling wasn’t interested and that’s why (Benezech) makes a very interesting parallel between rugby being now in the position that cycling was before the ‘Festina Affair’.”
Kimmage was also interviewed by Matt Cooper on The Last Word and you can listen to the interview here.
