Former Georgia captain Merab Sharikadze has been banned from sport for 11 years for his part in a secret scheme which helped national team players cheat anti-doping tests.
Hooker Giorgi Chkoidze has been banned for six years, with Lasha Khmaladze, Otar Lashkhi and Miriani Modebadze receiving three-year suspensions, and Lasha Lomidze being banned for nine months.
Sharikadze, who led Georgia to a famous win over Wales in Cardiff in 2022, admitted providing ‘clean’ urine to three team-mates.
A World Anti-Doping Agency investigation found that Georgia’s national testing authority would tip off Georgia’s team doctor Nutsa Shamatava about forthcoming tests, and she would then share the information via a team group chat and organise sample exchanges to avoid positive tests.
World Rugby, who flagged anomalies in samples from the team in the run-up to the 2023 Rugby World Cup, says Georgia were the subject of “the most extensive anti-doping investigation ever undertaken in rugby”, but that performance-enhancing drugs were not the motivation for the deception.
“World Rugby’s operating hypothesis was that the urine sample substitutions were conducted to conceal the use of performance-enhancing substances, however World Rugby’s extensive investigation has revealed no evidence to support this,” it said.
“In parallel, there was credible evidence to support the players’ assertions that the urine sample substitutions occurred to conceal the use of non-performance-enhancing substances (namely, cannabis and tramadol).”
While cannabis is on Wada’s list of banned substances,, external its use is only prohibited during competition. Tramadol, which is now similarly sanctioned, was not banned at all at the time of Georgia’s offences.
Their urine swaps all took place to evade detection out of competition.
World Rugby’s retesting of stored samples showed the five instances of sample substitution dated back to 2019.
Sharikadze appeared in three of the Lelos’ pool games at the 2023 Rugby World Cup, while hooker Chkoidze dropped out of contention for the tournament just before its start, citing an injury picked up in a warm-up match.
Wing Modebadze started the team’s defeat by Australia in their tournament opener at Stade de France, before being replaced in the squad by Lashkhi on injury grounds.
Khmaladze started at full-back in the defeat by Wales in Nantes, while back row Lomidze, who had brief spells in England with London Irish and Doncaster, was not involved in the tournament.
