THE RFL yesterday showed the way for other leading team sports in Britain by making their players available for no-notice, out-of-competition drugs testing of players.

The FA and the RFU are now under pressure to follow the lead set by the RFL, in which elite players have to provide UK Sport, which oversees drugs testing for the Government, with details of where they will be for at least one hour a day, five days a week. Although this programme is still not as rigorous as in many individual sports, in which competitors have to be available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, the policy is now more comprehensive.

Neither professional footballers nor England rugby union players are presently subjected to out-of-competition testing, except at squad sessions, and therefore some players could go several weeks without having to give a urine sample.

Any engage Super League players who miss three such tests because of inaccurate or insufficient information about their whereabouts could face sanctions under the code of the World Anti-Doping Agency, which the RFL is bound to follow.

Richard Lewis, the RFL’s executive chairman, said yesterday that the new plans are a sign of the sport’s commitment to the fight against doping. “Introducing a programme of this kind means we can now potentially test players at their homes, which is a major step forward for the sport,” he said.

Rugby league players already have one of the most comprehensive testing programmes in British sport, with 400 urine samples being scheduled after matches or at squad training sessions during the present year.

The decision to introduce the programme follows widespread concern about the number of positive tests in the sport. Three players — Sean Penkywicz, of Huddersfield Giants, Ryan Hudson, of Bradford Bulls, and Phil Berry, of Warrington Wolves — had their contracts terminated by their Super League clubs this year for taking anabolic steroids.

As a result, Super League players have recently attended a series of educational workshops to raise the awareness and understanding of drugs issues. UK Sport is also under scrutiny at the moment because last week the Independent Sports Review of Lord Moynihan and Kate Hoey, both former Ministers for Sport, recommended that the national programme of testing and education should go to a separate organisation and not be administered by the quango.