Wasps to offer drugs shame prop a way back

Chris Jones
11 Nov 2009

Lawrence Dallaglio last night revealed London Wasps will offer Matt Stevens a way back into top-class rugby when he completes a two-year ban after admitting a cocaine addiction.

The disgraced England prop is suspended until 18 January 2011 and faces an uphill battle to win back his place in the squad before the World Cup eight months later. However, playing for a high-profile club such as Wasps would increase his chances of making the finals in New Zealand.

Stevens, who quit Bath in the wake of his punishment for testing positive for cocaine after a Heineken Cup game, is 27 and should be reaching his prime as a forward in 2011.

And despite Stevens's two-year lay-off, Dallaglio is prepared to take a chance on his former England team-mate, whose absence has helped create the current front-row crisis for Martin Johnson's injury-hit side for Saturday's game with Argentina.

"We will be happy to offer Matt a job when he completes his ban and Wasps have a reputation for taking in waifs and strays," said the former Wasps skipper who is now on the club's board.

"We are an inclusive club and the game has a moral obligation to look after Matt, who was banned for using a recreational drug not a performance-enhancing one.

"Matt was hung out to dry when this all broke and Bath should have looked after him.”

Dallaglio was speaking at the Prince Obolensky lecture — an annual rugby event — which this year was given by Judge Jeff Blackett, the Rugby Football Union's disciplinary officer.

Blackett told the audience at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in London he would favour a rule change that allowed a player “one chance” if they tested positive for a recreational drug, but then it would be “two strikes and out”.

Blackett admitted his investigation into Bloodgate last season had shaken him because Dean Richards, Harlequins' former director of rugby who was banned for three years for the scandal, had been one of his idols.

He said: “He was someone I trusted. Something persuaded him to lie and if a man like that can succumb to those pressures, where does that leave rugby football?”