THE Rugby Football Union insists its anti-doping programme is robust despite saying today that a Premiership player can go an entire season without being tested.

Figures for the 2016-17 season, published by the governing body today, revealed that a total of 623 tests uncovered no violations within the professional game in England.

However, while England stars are typically required to return samples eight to 12 times each campaign across club and international duty, that figure drops to as low as zero for a Premiership player.

“Some would be tested three times a season, but some would go a season without being tested,” the RFU’s anti-doping and illicit drugs programme manager Stephen Watkins said.

“If a player did go a season without being tested, we’d flag it with UK Anti-Doping to make sure we pick those players up.”

The ongoing absence of positive tests in a sport where strength, speed, power and recovery are critical has raised eyebrows — the only violation ever recorded was the result of a contaminated supplement in the 2010-11 season.

Watkins, however, insists the present system, which also includes education, is fit for purpose.

“I speak to a lot of Premiership players and the testing is a deterrent because they simply don’t know when the testers are coming in,” Watkins said.

“If a tester comes in and tests another player, then they are still seeing it. This is season on season.

“Many of our players have played 10 years in the Premiership so will have been tested many times. This is not something we are overly concerned about.

“Since the 2004-05 season until the season that this report covers, over 7,000 tests have been done and not a single professional player has failed a drugs test for performance enhancing drugs.

“There are a huge number of intelligent tests — at home, at training, in matches, blood sampling.

“We’ve used some of the most sophisticated anti-doping techniques available and we have not uncovered a single player.

“What we can say is that there is no systemic problem. But while we’ve done a high number of tests, we aren’t complacent.”