Players will run out onto pitches up and down France in distinctive t-shirts this week as the stars of Rugby World Cup 2023 vow to Keep Rugby Clean.
Keep Rugby Clean is World Rugby’s anti-doping education and awareness programme. It aims to deter and prevent doping by educating participants on their responsibilities, raising awareness of doping risks, and fostering an ethical clean-sport ethos.
The Keep Rugby Clean weekend at RWC 2023 takes place on 23-24 September and will be marked through branding, stadium promotion and social medial activity. Teams are encouraged to show their support by wearing branded t-shirts, starting with Wednesday’s match between Italy and Uruguay at Stade de Nice.
RWC 2023 demands a world-class integrity programme and Keep Rugby Clean is used as a unifying message across all World Rugby’s clean sport education and promotion programmes in advance of, and during the tournament.
Keeping rugby’s flagship tournament clean and fair requires a carefully planned and coordinated pre-event programme which begins as soon as teams qualify and is run in conjunction with partner National Anti-Doping Organisations.
Though international players are subject to doping control all year round, as far as a year out from the tournament focus intensifies on the squads and teams attending, ensuring that World Rugby can maximise the possibility of a level playing field.
“The Keep Rugby Clean weekend at RWC 2023 is the perfect opportunity for everyone involved in elite rugby to show how much integrity matters to our game,” Mike Earl, World Rugby’s Director of Anti-Doping and Game Equipment, said.
“The teams and players who get involved are not stage-managed, they promote the campaign willingly, which sends a great message out to the wider world about just how seriously we take fairness and clean sport as a guiding principle of our game.”
