Substance abuse happens but not at Leinster, says coach O’Connor
The use of sleeping pill and energy drinks ‘cocktails’ may be a problem among rugby players in the southern hemisphere, but Leinster head coach Matt O’Connor says it is not an issue in this part of the world.
Reports from New Zealand yesterday revealed that two All Blacks, Israel Dagg and Corey Jane, had mixed sleeping pills with energy drinks while on a night out just 72 hours before the World Cup quarter-final against Argentina three years ago.
The revelation follows reports that a New Zealand rugby league side used a similar cocktail at the code’s World Cup in the UK earlier this year and the use – and misuse — of prescribed drugs has assumed priority status among rugby officials Down Under.
Players south of the equator have at times been known to use sleeping pills for more regular purposes given the major distances and amount of time zones they have to travel for games.
“I was involved in Super Rugby and their travel schedules,” said O’Connor. “When you’ve got short turnarounds and you need to get yourself up for games and all the things that go with that then you can understand the potential need for and use of those.
“Certainly it’s not something we’ve had to deal with in the Rabo.”
Jane and Dagg were reprimanded in 2011 for a night on the booze when they also broke the team’s curfew, but it has now been revealed the pair misused the medication in an attempt to see who could stay awake the longest.
NZRU chief executive Steve Tew confirmed the latest update on the story and labelled the players “silly” while denying there was a cover-up at the time.
“At the time we struggled to understand how taking a sleeping pill could keep you up late at night,” Tew explained. “It still seems counter-intuitive, doesn’t it? “They were drinking. There’s no question about that. At the time there was mention of sleeping pills but the key was they were out past the curfew, they were drinking two or three days before the quarter-final.
“They let the team down, they let themselves down and it was dealt with as we’d expect it to be dealt with... As I understand it, it was almost as silly as let’s have some sleeping pills and see who can stay up the longest.”
Tew went on to say that it was unclear how commonplace the practice of mixing such cocktails may be among rugby players but Australia’s National Rugby League (NRL) has recently announced it is to commence tests for prescribed drugs.
The NZRU is said to be investigating the practice which does not break any current drug-testing protocols, but is not calling for a ban on sleeping pills or prescription drugs in rugby.
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