CHAMBERS CLEARED FOR LEAGUE
The Rugby Football League have cleared the way for controversial athlete Dwain Chambers to try his hand at the 13-man code.
The disgraced sprinter has been offered trials by Castleford, Super League’s bottom club, and will be unveiled by them at a press conference on Monday morning.
Chambers, who turns 30 next Saturday, returned to the track in February after completing a two-year ban for testing positive for the designer steroid THG.
The RFL, who follow the guidelines set by the World Anti-Doping Agency, say Chambers would be permitted to play rugby league.
“It is fundamentally a matter for the club at this stage but our operational rules would not prevent him playing,” said an RFL spokesman.
“Our sport offers people an opportunity to come back once they have served the appropriate suspension.”
Former England hooker Ryan Hudson became the most high-profile rugby league player to return to the game just over 12 months after completing a two-year ban for use of the banned steroid stanozolol.
Hudson, who had moved from Castleford in the winter of 2004, was sacked by Bradford without ever playing a game for them but joined Huddersfield and is now in his second season with the Giants.
The RFL, who earlier this month banned former Hull and Warrington winger Richie Barnett for two years after he tested positive for testosterone, insist their testing policy is rigorous.
They stepped up their procedures following criticism from UK Sport and now conduct target testing as well as holding out-of-competition tests.
Chambers, who could expect to be target tested, insisted he was free from drugs on his return to athletics but that did not prevent a storm of protests from fellow competitors and organisers who complained the sprinter had not been subjected to regular tests during his time away.
He qualified for the World Indoor Championships, however, and despite officials at UK Athletics making it clear they would rather not have picked him, he went on to win a silver medal in the 60 metres.
Chambers won £10,000 for his efforts in Valencia but that barely made a dent in the £100,000 he owes the IAAF for prize money won while cheating.
He twice tried and failed to make the breakthrough in American Football during his exile from athletics but is now poised to try his luck in rugby league.
Chambers is thought to have had no previous experience of either code of rugby but his speed would be an obvious asset to Castleford, who have won just one of their opening eight matches since their return to Super League.
The Tigers have the smallest squad in Super League but have scope within the salary cap to bolster their numbers.
Castleford, who have made no official comment after negotiating a deal with a Sunday newspaper, insist their move for Chambers is no publicity stunt, even though he would be guaranteed to draw the crowds to their modest 11,000-capacity ground.
The move is reminiscent of the signing by London Broncos of former British heavyweight boxing champion Gary Mason, who made three appearances for them in the days before Super League.
“We are not surprised that athletes are attracted to Super League,” said an RFL spokesman.
Chambers would become the highest-profile sprinter to turn to rugby league since Berwyn Jones, the British 100 yards record-holder, who joined Wakefield Trinity in 1964 and went on the 1966 Great Britain tour to Australia.
Abi Ekoku, a former UK and AAA champion at shot putt and discus, was 27 when he gave up athletics for rugby league and went on to play in the 1997 Challenge Cup final at Wembley for Bradford.
“If it is a serious push to play the game, I wish him well,” said Ekoku, who also played for London Broncos and Halifax and went on to become Great Britain team manager. “Anyone brave enough to make that decision deserves credit.”
Emmanuel McDonald Bailey was another sprinter who briefly became a rugby league professional when he signed for Leigh in the 1950s, while Olympic shot-putter Arthur Rowe made an abortive move to Oldham at the end of his career in 1961.