THE IRFU THIS morning released their anti-doping report for the 2015/16 season, showing no adverse findings with the number of total tests rising from 191 to 267.
Ireland’s senior men were tested 94 times compared to 28 the year before, mostly attributable to the Rugby World Cup campaign in England. While the sharp drop in women’s testing can also be put down to spike that occurred for the 2014 World Cup.
The emergence of Ireland’s Sevens programme has had an impact on the figures with 43 tests given by players in the short form of the game.
Including academies, there were 81 tests carried out on provincial players here, with the figure for tests on players in the Ulster Bank League remaining static at four.
Outside of doping, the union also announced it would increase its budget for the domestic game by €1.2 million, following on from an €800,000 increase last year to leave the annual figure invested in grassroots at over €10 million.
View the IRFU’s anti-doping report (PDF) here>>
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