No drug tests for Fiji rugby players

Fiji's rugby players will not be drug-tested before their end-of-season tour to Europe, despite coach Wayne Pivac's warning of a new hard line on drug use.

Pivac said he was not reversing his harsh stand against drugs, promised when winger Vilimoni Delasau tested positive to cannabis after Fiji's test against New Zealand in June. The New Zealand-born Fiji coach said the cost of blanket drug-testing was too exorbitant for the cash-strapped island union but he hoped players would still heed an anti-drugs message. The board of the Fiji Rugby Union discussed Delasau's case at its weekly board meeting on Tuesday, at Pivac's prompting. Delasau, the former Canterbury Crusaders winger, now based in France, was fined 500 New Zealand dollars (US$350, Ђ285), and reprimanded by a New Zealand judicial committee for his second cannabis offense. Pivac has warned that Fiji players who test positive for banned drugs risk banishment from the national team. He is personally disappointed with the decision taken by the New Zealand Rugby Union, AP reports.