Four episodes to look rugby straight in the eye and say what works, what jams and what is rotting. The final instalment today, but the file stays open. What comes next is for you to write.
A stocktake without concessions
The facts first. In South Africa, the number of anti-doping tests carried out by SAIDS fell from 785 in 2015 to 127 in 2024, a sixfold drop in ten years, according to an investigation by the Telegraph based on data from the World Anti-Doping Agency. The suspension of the Bloemfontein laboratory, the country’s only WADA-accredited site, has paralysed part of the sample-collection chain since March 2024. At the same time, Springboks prop Asenathi Ntlabakanye has just been handed an 18-month suspension starting on 13 May 2026: he will miss the 2027 World Cup in Australia.
In France, it is the A2R that is opening another sensitive file: the ongoing investigation into image-rights agreements, used to pay a significant share of players’ salaries outside their official contracts. The favourite target: foreign players in Pro D2 on LNR contracts close to the minimum wage (≈ 23,000 € gross a year), sometimes those on 42,000 € in Top 14. The lowest salaries serve as the adjustment variable. At stake: the risk of heavy sporting sanctions for the clubs and tax penalties for the players. And, in the background, the recurring question of the salary cap, set at 10.7 M€ per club this season, with overspends of more than 200,000 € no longer even open to mediation from 2026-2027. René Bouscatel has taken a harder line with Stade Toulousain: signal sent.
On the incivility front, on 27 March journalist Thomas Palmier (Ici Pays Basque) was set upon and then struck in the press box at the Jean-Alric stadium after Aurillac–Biarritz, in Pro D2. The LNR disciplinary committee’s verdict: a 16,600 € fine for Stade Aurillacois and one match behind closed doors, suspended. A journalist, in a press box, in 2026.
On racism, the suspension of Melvyn Jaminet (34 weeks without reprieve from the FFR for his video targeting “Arabs”) remains the highest-profile marker. But the FFR also opened an educational door: eight weeks off if he carries out six prevention initiatives on alcohol and social media, and six initiatives promoting the fight against discrimination. Lower down the pyramid it is overflowing too: a Drancy player filed a complaint on 8 February 2026 after being told “Get lost, you dirty black” during a Nationale 2 match against the Tyrosse Espoirs. At Fédérale and amateur level, several players and officials acknowledge that racist remarks “get worse the further down the divisions you go”.
On amateur violence, the FFR itself acknowledges a 36% rise in violence cases examined by its disciplinary committees over the last three seasons. That is what pushed the federation to roll out its plan to combat violence and incivility from 2024-2025. The U19s are on the front line, the age when bodies thicken faster than heads.
On sexual violence, the heaviest case remains that of women’s sevens: an internal audit in June 2025 identified twelve internationals affected by the conduct of a physio who was part of the staff between 2017 and 2022. David Courteix, suspended in 2025, was cleared by the sports ministry’s administrative inquiry in early 2026. At Biarritz, another physio received a one-year suspended sentence and a three-year ban from practising for sexual assaults on five players. And the Auradou–Jegou case in Argentina is still not closed: proceedings dropped but an appeal under way.
Across the Channel, the class action over concussions is taking on unprecedented proportions. More than 1,100 former players, 784 from rugby union, 319 from rugby league, are now taking on World Rugby, the RFU, the WRU, the RFL and BARLA. Among the claimants: Steve Thompson, Phil Vickery and Mark Regan, 2003 world champions. A case management hearing on 22 and 23 July, trial in 2026. The demand: compensation, and the creation of an independent body on brain health.
And the list, unfortunately, is not exhaustive. Excesses in the third half. Individual cases that never made the news. We would rather not have to write it.
But rugby is not just its wounds
On the other side, there are those taking action. Provale, the players’ union, which since 2019 has made three psychologists available to its members. Tech XV. The A2R, precisely. The LNR and the FFR, for all their heaviness, have worked with Provale, Tech XV and the UCPR to build a mental health plan built around prevention, early detection and care — with, from the start of 2026-2027, compulsory pre-season psychological assessments in every professional club. Regional leagues and departmental committees are multiplying anti-violence charters. And above all, below them, the thousands of community initiatives run by clubs that will never make the front page: the people who scrape the mud off the boots after training, organise the Wednesday snacks, go up into the estates, out into the countryside, and sign up the eight-year-old girl who had never touched an oval ball.
Rugby in turmoil deserves more than the trials it faces, even when they are deserved. It also deserves to be defended by the women and men who keep it turning, week after week.
Are you the doc? The poll
If you had to set a priority in the fight against rugby’s cancers, how would you rank these ten ills? The list is presented in alphabetical order — over to you to reorder it by urgency, from the most pressing to the least critical.
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