Six Georgian men's rugby international players have been suspended for doping violations following a joint investigation by World Rugby and the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), it was announced on Friday.
Five of the six players have been found guilty of substituting urine samples, while the sixth has been charged and suspended until the disciplinary process has run its course.
WADA also unearthed collusion between members of the Georgian Anti-Doping Agency (GADA) and a member of the Georgia team's support personnel, who then forewarned the players of impending testing.
"Six players and a member of team support personnel have been charged and sanctioned in relation to an orchestrated scheme involving recreational drugs and sample substitution," World Rugby said in a statement.
World Rugby sparked the investigation when "irregularities in urine samples were identified by World Rugby's athlete passport management programme" in the buildup to the 2023 men's Rugby World Cup in France.
The international federation also alerted WADA in August 2023.
"The two bodies worked closely together throughout complex and extensive parallel investigations which featured targeted player testing and DNA analysis by World Rugby, including on historical samples held via World Rugby's long-term storage programme," World Rugby added in their statement.
Georgia are attempting to break into the elite of world rugby and are currently 13th in the world, although they have a highest-ever ranking of 11th.
WADA's investigative unit unearthed collusion between members of the Georgian Anti-Doping Agency (GADA) and an "entourage member" of the Georgian national team.
"Six sample collection personnel of GADA were identified based on their documented presence at doping controls when sample substitution occurred," WADA said in their report.
The individuals were identified only as Manager One, Manager Two, DCO (Doping Control Officer) One, DCO Two and two chaperones.
The investigation found evidence that Manager One, who was the only team member who received testing requests from World Rugby, "had established a practice of providing advance notice to the Entourage Member regarding scheduled testing missions," WADA added.
"This advance notice was typically delivered via text message prior to the testing mission."
The Entourage Member would then share this information "via text message in a group chat, which included athletes and staff members of the national team."
Five of the players admitted to substituting samples and one team "Entourage Member" admitted to facilitating the tampering.
EVIDENCE OF TAMPERING
WADA said it had discovered further breaches of international testing rules in that "GADA does not monitor athletes after notification, nor does it witness the passing of urine".
"According to the athletes and the Entourage Member, this practice stood in contrast to the doping control procedure they were typically experiencing when tested abroad," WADA said.
The two managers and one of the Doping Control Officers denied the allegations when they were confronted with them.
However, WADA said they had also uncovered evidence that several of the officials were guilty of "tampering".
In two instances, testing missions were carried out a day earlier than the date requested by World Rugby and the date was falsified to match that originally requested by World Rugby.
"In one of these two instances, Manager One provided false documentation to World Rugby to justify why one of the athletes World Rugby had requested to test could not be tested."
WADA added that all these elements combined "raises serious concerns about the integrity of the anti-doping programme of GADA".