Matt Stevens has been banned from all rugby until 2011 © Getty Images

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Tournaments/Tours: Guinness Premiership

Teams: England

UK Sport, the body responsible for working with sports councils and other agencies in order ensure success in British sport, has backed the RFU's doping policy after England prop Matt Stevens was banned for two years following a positive test for cocaine.

Stevens tested positive following Bath's Heineken Cup game against Bath in December and subsequently admitted having a problem with drugs. This admission led to certain quarters questioning the RFU's doping policy, which includes in and out of competition testing and is conducted and co-ordinated by UK Sport in compliance with WADA (World Anti-Doping Agency) standards, but UK Sport spokesman Robert Langley believes that the fact he was caught validates their work.

"We have faith in the way the RFU have dealt with it (the issue of social drug-taking) and will deal with it," he said. "They have a strong education programme, they have a strong support network in place for players and we are more than happy to leave it in their hands to deal with because they are doing a good job of it.

"I wouldn't want to talk specifically about Matt's case. The experience we have seen from other sports people with similar social drug issues, and anyone with a social drug issue, is that they do what they can to mask it and hide it from their employers.

"That seems to be one of the traits of such a drugs problem. From that point of view it was not a surprise. Why wasn't he detected earlier? We can't test players day-in and day-out. It highlighted that any player who is taking drugs, be they social or performance-enhancing, will get caught."

The RFU signed up to the WADA code in 2004 and have since reported 14 violations out of over 1700 tests. They have a full-time anti-doipng officer, Gavin Dovey, and are currently the only union to do so.

"The RFU are very pro-active on anti-doping and we have what we feel is a very strong programme in place with them both on the testing and the education side," Langley said. "They are one of the more pro-active governing bodies we work with. They put a lot of time, energy and resources into anti-doping. They have Gav Dovey as a dedicated anti-doping resource.

"From that point of view we more than happy with the approach they take and the programmes we have put in place with them."