Kimmage right to ask thorny drugs questions

We know about the stuff people like to hear. What about the stuff that people don’t like to hear? Paul Kimmage’s comments about rugby the weekend before last fall into that category.

Asking awkward questions about the possible use of performance-enhancing drugs in rugby fits into no known narrative when it comes to Irish rugby, and particularly the coverage of Irish rugby in the media.

What made the timing of Kimmage’s article doubly awkward was the announcement of the Irish Rugby World Cup bid last Friday. A crisis of conscience about the purity of the game clearly offers a tricky parallel story to the taking-our-place-among-the-nations-of-the-earth spin of a World Cup bid, and this writer heard quite a few complaints about Kimmage’s cussedness. As in, this week of all weeks, etc.