A total of 829 anti doping tests were conducted across various international levels of the game, which included a new global out of competition testing programme involving more than 1,000 players from 27 member unions.
The four anti doping rule violations all came from tests undertaken in competition.
IRB Anti Doping manager, Tim Ricketts, said: “The 2004 testing programme was very successful as we implemented new out of competition testing. This represented an important step in our fight to deter players from taking banned substances.
“The programme recorded no violations. The same was true of testing at the U19 and U21s world championships which is good news for the future of the game.”
Regarding the violations from ‘in competition’ tests, Ricketts said: “The positive results were returned for what are termed ‘specified substances’ on the WADA prohibited list. This list includes substances less likely to be used to improve performance. However, players and their respective medical staff need to adhere more closely to the list of prohibited substances and the IRB’s anti doping regulations otherwise they could find themselves on the end of a sanction and locked out of the game.”
In 2005 the testing programme will be expanded with testing at the IRB’s regional and tier 2 tournaments, random testing at RWC 2007 qualifying matches and an increase in the number of tests conducted out of competition.
This should see around 1,000 anti doping tests conducted by the IRB, which is in addition to testing carried out by national unions.
