Six gamers from Georgia’s rugby workforce have been handed lengthy bans – together with one for 11 years – for his or her involvement in a urine-swapping scheme to cheat anti-doping checks in one of many sport’s largest corruption scandals.
The case was described by World Rugby on Tuesday as “the most extensive anti-doping investigation ever undertaken in rugby”.
Former captain Merab Sharikadze was given the 11-year ban, whereas Giorgi Chkoidze was banned for six years, and Lasha Khmaladze, Otar Lashkhi and Miriani Modebadze acquired three-year suspensions. Lasha Lomidze was banned for 9 months.
Nutsa Shamatava, the nationwide workforce’s physician, was banned for 9 years for her function within the scandal, the place she offered advance discover of upcoming out-of-competition doping controls to gamers in group chats.
World Rugby mentioned it found irregularities in urine samples within the run-up to the boys’s Rugby World Cup in France in 2023 and alerted the World Anti-Doping Company.
Their joint investigation discovered the six gamers “engaged in swapping of urine samples to avoid the risk of testing positive for substances that they believed were prohibited, the former men’s first team doctor provided advance notice of testing and other members of staff arguably were or ought to be have been aware that such advance notice was provided”.
World Rugby mentioned the investigation revealed no proof that the urine samples have been substituted to hide using performance-enhancing substances.
As a substitute, the governing physique mentioned there was “credible evidence” to help assertions by the six gamers that they hid hashish and a painkiller, tramadol.
The Georgia Rugby Union accepted a misconduct cost, World Rugby added, and agreed to an undisclosed monetary penalty and to implement “a roadmap of various reforms and measures in its anti-doping training and education to mitigate the risk of any future issues of this nature arising”.
