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'To say there's an image of medication being handed out willy-nilly, that's a very unfair reflection'

Leo Cullen and Brian O'Driscoll after winning PRO12 title in 2014. (Photo by Patrick Bolger/Getty Images)

Leinster head coach Leo Cullen has been drawn into the debate over the use of painkillers in rugby, after his former Leinster and Ireland team mate Brian O’Driscoll said they were commonplace during his playing days.

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Cullen won three Heineken Cups as captain of Leinster alongside O’Driscoll, in 2009, 2011 and 2012. Both players retired from the game in 2014 after lifting the PRO12 title with the Irish province.

“I was never a big fan, and even to this day, I’m not a big fan of taking medication,” Cullen said. “That’s not to say I haven’t taken an anti-inflammatory.

“Rugby as a game, it’s a physical contact sport. With that comes inflammation. What would you take to get rid of inflammation? It would be an anti-inflammatory, probably.

“There’s a certain part of the professional game that has supplementation or whatever that is, in terms of different types of legal medication.

Cullen took over as head coach in 2015 and he led Leinster to the Champions Cup and PRO14 double success last season.

“To say there’s an image of medication being handed out willy-nilly, I think that’s a very unfair reflection on the environment we have here at the moment.

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“And that’s all I’m really concerned about, I’m not interested in dragging up things from the past. That would be my view.”

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O’Driscoll was discussing the International Rugby Players’ survey during an appearance on Irish podcast Off The Ball.

“I’d have been part of teams where the doctor would have walked down the bus on the way to games inquiring who wanted what in advance [of kick-off],” O’Driscoll said.

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“For me, for the last couple of seasons, part of my match prep would have been a Difene and couple of co-codamol. In the Leinster and Irish set-ups you could get your hands on Difene.

“You got to fight your case a bit more now, and prove their necessity. Drug cabinets that might have been open once upon a time are very much shut and inaccessible.

“It used to be for sleepers as well. Diazepam [valium] to try and counteract what would happen with the caffeine [tablets] because they couldn’t sleep. I’m not saying it was the culture but it happened.”

O’Driscoll said that using painkillers would add to his confidence before matches if he was carrying an injury.

“Just a painkiller if I was carrying something. You know what? It almost became like habit, where it gave me a fighting chance if I wasn’t feeling 100 per cent that it might have levelled it up.

“I wouldn’t have been the only one doing that. It was usually the older players, just to get you to balance the equilibrium, almost of feeling okay.

“I’m sure at times in my subconscious I would have taken it where maybe I could have done without it. If it is perfectly legal, there is no need for TUEs [Therapeutic Use Exemptions], give yourself a chance of playing your best game.

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JW 1 hour ago
James O'Connor, the Lions and the great club v country conundrum

Lol you need to shoot your editor for that headline, even I near skipped the article.


France simply need to go to a league format for the Brennus, that will shave two weekends of pointless knockout rugby from their season and raise the competitions standards and mystique no end.


The under age loophole is also a easy door to shut, just remove the lower age limit. WR simply never envisioned a day were teams would target people under the age of 17 or whatever it is now, but much like with Rassie and his use of subs bench, that day was obviously always going to come. I can’t remember how football does it, I think it’s the other way around with them, you can’t sign anyone younger than that but unions can’t stop 17 or 18 yo’s from leaving for a pro club if they want to. There is a transaction that takes place of a few hundred thousand for a normal average player. I’d prefer rugby to be stricter and just keep the union bodies signoff being required.


What really was their problem with Kite and co leaving though? Do we really need a game dominated by Internationals? I even think WR’s proposed calendar might be a bit too much, with at minimum 12 top tier games being played in the World Championship. I think 10 to 12, maybe any one player playing 10 of those 12 is the best way to think of it, for every international team is max, so that they can allow their domestic comps to shine if they want, and other nations like Japan and Fiji can, even some of the home nations maybe, and fill out their calendar with extra tours if they like them as a way to make money. As it is RA don’t have as good a pathway system, so they could simply buy back those players if they turn good. Are they worried they’ll be less likely to? We wait for baited breath for the new season to be laid out in front of us by WR.

It could impose sanctions on the Fédération Française de Rugby, but the body which runs the Top 14 and the ProD2, the Ligue Nationale de Rugby, is entirely independent.

It’s not independent at all. The LNR is a body under, and commissioned by, the FFR (and Government control) to mediate the clubs. FFR can simply install a new club competition if they don’t listen, then you’d see whether the players want to stay at any club who doesn’t tow the line and move to the new competition, as they obviously wouldn’t fall under the auspice of world rugby. They would be rebels, which is fine in and upon itself, but they would isolate themselves from the rest of the game and would need to be OK with that. I have no doubt whatsoever that clubs would have to and want to fall in line to remain part of the EPCR and French rugby. Probably even the last thing they would want is to compete with another French domestic competition that has all the advantages they don’t.


All those players would do good for a few seasons in France, especially the fringe ones, with thankfully zero risk of them being poached if they turn good. New Zealand had a turn at keeping all of it’s talent, and while it upticked the competitiveness of the Super Rugby teams into a total dominance of Australian and South African counterparts (who were suffering more heavily than most the other way at that stage), it didn’t have as positive an effect on the next step up as ensuring young talents development is not hindered does. Essentially NZR flooded the locate market with players but inevitably it didn’t think the local economy could sustain any more pro teams itself, so now we are seeing a normal amount of exodus for the availability of places again. Are Australia in exactly the same footing? I think so, finances where dicey for a while perhaps but I doubt they are putting money constraints on their contracting now. It’s purely about who leaves to open up opportunity.

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