Sam Burgess and the 5 Biggest Drug Scandals in Rugby

The Australian newspaper reported on Friday that the National Rugby League (NRL) club had covered up alleged drug use and domestic violence by Burgess.

The 31-year-old's lawyer denied the claims in a statement to the newspaper.

This isn't the first, and unfortunately, won't be the final drugs scandal to hit rugby.

Former England international, Michael Lipman, who had won 10 caps for his country was handed a nine month ban for a drug offence in 2009.

The same ban was dished out to his ex-team-mates at Bath, Alex Crockett and Andrew Higgins, for refusing to submit to doping tests despite repeated requests by their employers.

The second row was banned for drugs in 1997 - just four games after making his Springboks debut - when a friend in the police force told him that taking nandrolone would speed up his recovery from a knee injury

Ackermann spent the next two years continuing his work as a firearms instructor in Pretoria before making his return to rugby .

The England prop admitted in 2009 that he was struggling with a "very serious substance", understood to be cocaine. He said that he had "an illness" having tested positive after a Heineken Cup game for his club against Glasgow in December and was subsequently handed a two-year ban.

The South African-born prop bounced back admirably from this ban, moving to Saracens and resurrecting his career, and would play at the 2011 World Cup and on the 2013 British & Irish Lions tour.

Dyantyi - who was named as World Rugby's Breakthrough Player of the Year in 2018 - has pleaded his innocence since he was originally informed of the failed test on August 13 2019, from a sample taken on July 2.

Following that positive test, the 26-year-old requested for his B-sample to also be tested, but the South African Institute for Drug Free Sport (Saids) confirmed on Friday that the second sample matched the first, with banned substances metandienone, methyltestosterone and LGD-4033 all present.

That means his original four year ban stands. It doesn’t pay to be a dope.

In 1999, the Wasps back-rower was forced to resign as the England captain following newspaper allegations that he had taken and dealt hard drugs.

Dallaglio categorically denied the claims made in the News of the World. He added: “The circumstances in which the supposed admissions were obtained amounted to an elaborate set-up.”

But editor Phil Hall said: “We stand by our story. Lawrence Dallaglio is damned in his own words and frankly, we are amazed at his denial.”

The RFU dropped drugs charges against Dallaglio after ‘new evidence’ emerged during an open hearing chaired by a high court judge who decided not to ban him but instead imposed a fine of £15,000 for bringing the game into disrepute.