Following on from his assertion that journalists and other have stuck their head in the sand somewhat when it comes to the possibility of the use of performance enhancing drugs in rugby, Paul Kimmage was on the Last Word with Matt Cooper this afternoon to outline his beliefs.
For much of the interview, Kimmage outlined his suspicions in much the same way as he did during his Sunday Independent column and his interview with the city.ie. He explained how Laurent Benezech's book planted a serious seed of doubt in his mind and how his subsequent research led to a more forthright view.
Following the former cyclist's assertions that there was a very strong possibility that countries such as France, Argentina and South Africa had a hand in the 'medicalisation' of rugby, Cooper went on to ask Kimmage if he believed that there was a specific problem of PED use in Irish rugby.
You've got to be a bit naive to think that we're somehow insulated from that and to answer the question, I don't know. I had one text from someone within the rugby community and he said look, "this is a time bomb", and for me the killer is the silence. I've heard this silence before.
When questioned if he was worried about the response to him potentially upsetting the applecart that is Irish rugby and the crest of a wave if is on at the moment, Kimmage was unsurprisingly steadfast.
I'm not interested in what they want to know. What I'm going to do is pull the head out of the sand. I'm going to show them this problem that the sport has to face and has to address. It's very interesting, you ask people who love the game would they want their kids playing rugby now.
From their, Kimmage went on to speak about the use of creatine and other such supplements is schools rugby in Ireland.
Any sport that has a supplement culture at 16 is on a dodgy path.
Here's the full interview, but you can hear Kimmage's thoughts on Irish rugby from around the 15.00 mark.
