It was probably only a matter of time before Irish rugby joined the long list of sports which have been tainted by the suspicion of drug abuse. Disclosures about drugs in sport have become depressingly familiar across a wide range of professional and amateur activities over the last few years; rugby union is just the latest sport to find itself at the centre of the storm.
However, this week's revelations about positive tests involving Irish players could not have come at a worse time for the Irish Rugby Football Union. Having moved quickly last weekend to dismiss claims by former Irish player, Neil Francis, that since 1988 Irish players had taken illegal performance-enhancing substances, the union now finds itself embroiled in a difficult and embarrassing situation.
IRFU president, Noel Murphy, yesterday called on Francis and his newspaper the Sunday Tribune to furnish the union with evidence relating to his claims but at the same time was evasive on the union's position over the three positive tests - the latest of which only emerged at yesterday's news conference in Dublin. The IRFU is right in its efforts to protect the reputations of a whole generation of rugby players but can be accused of obfuscation on the latest developments.
Throughout the past week, there has been anything but clarity from the IRFU on the role of the UK Sports Council, which conducted the tests, and the International Rugby Board on the vital point of when notification of the positive tests arrived at the Lansdowne Road headquarters. If one of the positive tests arose out of a Five Nations game this year, it is obvious that there is a serious flaw in the procedures if it took almost seven months to come to light.
In fairness, the IRFU president has accepted that links between the three bodies need to be examined in the light of this week's disclosures but the fact that there was a serious breakdown in communications, however innocent, will hardly be reassuring to any player caught up in the nightmare scenario of a positive test.
The IRFU has also been quick to point out that their testing procedures follow International Olympic Committee guidelines, but neglected to mention that the union differs completely from sport's most powerful body in detailing the results of positive tests. Any athlete who tests positive at an Olympic Games is subsequently named and, if proved innocent, quickly exonerated. Although this is a far from perfect system, at least it is open and transparent and removes the suspicion of guilt from an entire team. Confidentiality can often do as much damage as it hopes to limit.
Nobody questions the IRFU's commitment on the drugs issue and its determination to fight sport's most pressing problem but, like most governing bodies, it needs to reassure its members and supporters that it has a coherent policy in place to address what is a legal and ethical minefield.