Sailor cocaine incident a one-off: coach

New South Wales rugby coach Ewen McKenzie says he does not believe that disgraced star Wendell Sailor was a habitual cocaine user.

Today the Waratahs and Wallabies winger saw his Australian Rugby Union (ARU) contract torn up and received a two-year ban for testing positive to the drug back in April.

McKenzie said the news was a sad end to a controversial career.

"I don't think these were actions that were a habitual problem, I think it was a one-off, but he's been caught," he said.

"In the end he has bought the game into disrepute.

"He'll keep himself fit, he's naturally inclined to keep himself in good shape. In terms of rugby and definitely in terms of the Waratahs and from I am reading from the ARU it's a closed book there, but I guess it doesn't rule out him doing something else.

"We are certainly not proud or anything of what's happened and it has been a major disappointment but that's the way it's panned out and I think in the end the sanction is entirely exactly what it should be."

Sailor played less than one season for the Waratahs after arriving there from the Queensland Reds.

The former Brisbane Broncos league star played 37 Tests for the Wallabies. His ARU contract had been due to expire at the end of next year.

Source: http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200607/s1693171.htm



Sailor axed over cocaine use

Controversial Wallabies winger Wendell Sailor has had his Australian Rugby Union (ARU) contract torn up for using cocaine.

Today the ARU announced Sailor's contract was being terminated with immediate effect and he had been banned from playing for two years.

The ARU's independent judicial committee informed Sailor of its decision this morning.

ARU chief executive Gary Flowers said he was extremely disappointed with Sailor and had no hesitation in sacking him.

"His actions have been nothing short of irresponsible," he said.

"He already had a track record for poor behaviour which had seen him called in front of ARU and Wallaby team disciplinary committees on several previous occasions.

"The use of any illegal drug is contrary to the ethical concepts of sportsmanship, fair play, good medical practice and is potentially harmful to the health of the individual," he said in a statement released by the ARU.

"We also reject the arguments of those who claim we have no right to be testing for so-called 'recreational drugs'.

"There is no such thing as recreational drugs, these drugs are illegal, they are harmful to the people using them and they are not acceptable for use by our sportsmen and women.

"Australian rugby will not accept people in their playing ranks who are not good role models for the children of Australia.

"On the field, Wendell has been a great competitor with an outstanding work ethic, and his 37 Test caps are a great achievement. He has also been involved in charity and community work.

"However he has now let himself down, as well as letting down his NSW Waratah team-mates and Australian rugby fans."

Sailor tested positive to cocaine in April this year. His contract had been due to run through to the end of 2007.

Source: http://www.abc.net.au/sport/content/200607/s1692998.htm

Good decison by the ARU.

So.... all his bad behaviour is because he is a wa**er and not because of Cocaine... if we are to believe Rugby Coach, Ewan McKenzie!?

I saw Wendell at Noosa strutting his stuff years ago when he still played League. Believe me, he was strutting. So many of these High Profile Sports people have grown up with very little then all of a sudden they are thrust into the limelight and have wads of cash. The weaker willed of them will fall to temptation because there are those of us who are susceptable to addictions (of all kinds) and those of us who aren't. I personally think people who do give in to temptation are very weak willed and lacking in character and self control. I am delighted that Wendell has been sacked. Might wake some other's up!

I see that poor Wendell Sailor wants to play footy again after doing 2 years suspension from all codes !!

Wendell, Wendell, Wendell, I have heard this saying "if you have been a drug cheat, you'll always be a drug cheat" !!

You done the dumbest thing, Wendell !!

DRUGS AND SPORT DON'T MIX !!  

I am merging this thread with the existing thread on the same subject in the Rugby Union section of this board.

Sunk by argument that held no water
Greg Growden Chief Correspondent
Tuesday, July 25, 2006      

Wendell Sailor's bid to save his rugby career foundered because a tribunal ruled his prime argument, that taking cocaine at least four days before a match meant it wasn't performance-enhancing, was "without foundation and must fail".

An Australian Rugby Union judiciary committee, comprising John Gleeson, Peter Garling and Dr Jeffrey Steinweg, suspended Sailor for two years after drug testing following the NSW-ACT Super 14 match in Sydney on April 16 confirmed he had cocaine in his system.

The Herald has obtained a transcript of the ARU judicial committee's findings [see breakout], which reveals Sailor was questioned during the hearing about attending drugs-in-sport education sessions and receiving an anti-doping information card, which detailed the dangers of taking prohibited substances.

The transcript also reveals Sailor attempted to have the suspension cut back to one year, with his defence citing a case involving Argentine tennis player Mariano Puerta, who has had a recent doping suspensions reduced.

The transcript details Sailor's oral evidence, including an exchange in which the Test winger admits he was reminded he received an anti-doping information card when he was asked to provide a sample last year.

When asked if he had read the material in the card, Sailor replied: "Yes. Sometimes we do, sometimes we don't."

Sailor was asked if he was aware of the warnings on the card, including that "in elite sport … athletes are responsible for any prohibited substance detected in their sample". Sailor said he was.

The transcript reveals Sailor's lawyers informed the judicial committee that the player "denies that at any time within 96 hours" prior to the April 16 test he had "ingested … cocaine".

Sailor also denied he "gained any performance-enhancing benefit" from cocaine. His defence argued "the clear scientific evidence is that cocaine is a short-acting stimulant that has a performance-enhancing effect for no more than two hours at most and that neither it nor its metabolites could have any performance enhancing benefit if taken more than 96 hours before a match".

Sailor argued that because of the time lapse of more than four days, the cocaine could not be deemed as used "in competition", and so was not a prohibited substance.

Professor Starmer, an Associate Professor of Pharmacology at Sydney University, told the hearing benzoylecgonine, the metabolite of cocaine, "is generally detectable in urine for about one to four days, but can be detectable for up to three weeks depending on the dose of cocaine and the sensitivity of the test used".

When asked if the presence of benzoylecgonine in a urine sample may be detected more than a week after it was used, Professor Starmer replied: "It can be. It is usually in people who use the drug, use cocaine regularly."

The judiciary stated that whether Sailor "took the drug one hour or 10 hours or 100 hours before the game" was entirely irrelevant to the anti-doping bylaw.

"All that is required is that the metabolite is present in the sample," the judiciary said. "In our view, the main argument propounded on Sailor's behalf is without foundation and must fail. That is because it turns upon the time at which the drug was ingested and not the time at which the sample is taken … The phrase 'in competition' in the by-laws encompasses not the time at which the drug was ingested, but rather the time at which the process of doping control took place. There can no doubt that this doping control was carried out in competition."

The committee said Sailor "knew, or must be taken to have known, that cocaine was a prohibited substance".

"At least, the metabolite of cocaine was in his body during the match on 16 April 2006. Sailor produced no evidence of any mitigating circumstance."

The judiciary concluded that cocaine taking was "unacceptable" and within rugby union was "entirely prohibited and absolutely inappropriate".

The two-year ban was "hard on the player, but he must be taken to have known of the risks of his conduct and he must accept the consequences".

"This case must stand as a lesson to all rugby players that the ARU anti-doping by-law is valid, and effective, and that the consequences of a violation are very severe."

http://www.rugbyheaven.smh.com.au/news/off-the-field/sunken-sailor/2006/07/24/1153593271294.html

Perhaps the producers of "Dancing with the stars" should ask him for a urine sample ...just to be sure