Crikey, don't know whether I'm more surprised at the web that Rule wove or the RFL's complicity in it. What a fecking mess. And the only comment by Kath Hetherington, who effectively presided over the whole thing as Rule's boss, was that Rule had been hard done to.



As already said, Cooper's failure to do a pretty basic check is appalling and if you were doing some root cause analysis on this, you'd come back to 2 things IMO - firstly the appointment of Sean Long with his and his family's form, and secondly this lack of such a basic check by the club's conditioner.

That the RFL relaxed a rule effectively to allow Gleeson to play in the derby is mind-boggling.

Interesting that Agar was in on it all too, going to Gleeson's house etc.

Given the number of players supposed to be involved, and the number of drugs tests ongoing, I find it surprising there was only one failure.

And Rule not taking up legal representation and acting as "counsel" himself. Unbelievable.

Also, and tongue-in-cheek, this is not a great advert for Oxyelite. Before that derby we'd lost 7 from 10.



And to MrPhilb. I think we are officially owned by you today.

In the words of the article linked to in this thread (is the rest just speculation?):



One official who did not pass on information to UKAD, Emma Rosewarne, has been RFL head of anti-doping for 22 years.

A lengthy UK Anti-Doping investigation established the truth. Rule was banned from the game for two years, as was Cooper (with one year suspended).

The exact extent of the use of OxyElite Pro at Hull remains unconfirmed although one RFL official, Dean Hardman, testified to UKAD that Cooper had told him 'quite a few of the lads at the club were taking it ... I think he said six or seven, or seven or eight, and he said a lot of the first-team lads take it.'

An RFL spokesman said: 'Our view was that James Rule's concerns about the possibility of wider use of MHA was mere speculation - he did not indicate to us that he had any evidence that players other than Long and Gleeson had used the supplement.' The spokesman added: 'We disagree that Sean Long's role was crucial.'

An RFL spokesman said on Saturday: 'Throughout the investigation Emma Rosewarne has been open about her knowledge that the source of the OxyElite Pro was Bernard Long.'

Asked why an apparent breach of the rules by Rosewarne and/or the RFL had not resulted in action, UKAD said.'

Inside Sport understands that UKAD took legal advice and considered but rejected the idea of taking action against anyone from the RFL.

Rimmer said: 'We are confident that the RFL and its officers dealt with the case entirely appropriately and this has been reaffirmed by UKAD.'

Sounds like gleeson been hung out to dry by rule..., what a mess

So Hull find out on 3rd June that he has failed his test and rule tells the rfl that the whole squad may have taken it and asks if he should stand them down for the game against the dobbins on the 5th? He then gives false statements on the 9th. He's either one dumb mofo or he was acting on instructions from on high.



Anyway, total shambles from start to finish.



Also, if I were a young GB international with the world at my feet I'd be wanting to distance myself from this lot

Well of course you'd distance yourself from them but what would that involve? Not going to their houses for dinner?

I'm talking about from now

I cant see any of them been employed by a rl club again.

why will it, the new board at Hull have nothing to do with it do they?

Alarms bells will be ringing at Salford.

Without commenting on the stories merits.. Some people normally excuse the lack of coverage of rugby league in the mail (the kids rugby union comp getting more coverage than a SL game) that the readership wont be interested. Strange then that they can manage such a large interest and spread when it comes to bad news in the game.

They'll be loving this.

To state that other clubs 'must' have been involved is a bit of an assumption to make based on no evidence.



Very bad for the whole game as well as Hull FC but at least the current higher levels of the administration are not tainted.