Blood tests for Four Nations stars

Correspondent

The RFL will push for players from all countries to be blood-tested for Human Growth Hormone at this year’s Four Nations, according to Rugby League Week magazine.

With drugs one of the game’s biggest issues right now, Rugby Football League executive chairman Richard Lewis told the Australian magazine that the test – not used in the NRL and the cause of industrial unrest in American sports – should be used in October and November.

Wakefield hooker Terry Newton recently became the first footballer of any code to return a positive HGH test and was suspended for two years.

“It’s certainly something the RFL would strongly support because it’s able to detect substances that urine testing can’t detect,” Lewis told RLW.

“I think it’s an accepted test now. The reason it’s been a big story around that world is that it (the Newton case) has established it as a bona fide test.”

“I assumed the code that we (Rugby League International Federation) passed in Singapore would include all the latest testing.”