There are plans to carry out a survey at next year's World Cup focusing on the use of nutrient supplements after concerning results from a recent survey on top school first XVs.
Prof David Gerrard led a University of Otago team, commissioned by Drug Free Sport New Zealand, to undertake a small survey of top secondary school rugby teams and the amount of supplements they used.
Gerrard said he was surprised and concerned about the results of the survey.
''The revelations showed young people did not seek the right sort of advice on supplements and did not know what was going in them,'' Gerrard said.
''If they did try and find something out, then they may not go to the right people or go fishing around the internet.''
He said there had been concerns for some time about the use of nutritional supplements.
Supplements were not up to the same scientific scrutiny as other drugs, they eventually led to illegal drug use, and there was a dearth of scientific evidence on the benefits of supplements.
There was a worry people giving out the supplements had no knowledge about them and just repeated what the manufacturers told them.
Gerrard said young athletes were under extreme pressure to perform but there were better ways to do that than using supplements.
He had approached authorities and hoped to carry out a survey on supplements at next year's Rugby World Cup, where he would also work as an anti-doping officer.
The proposed survey would look into how frequently supplements were used, what players knew about what they were taking, where the nutrients were sourced, and what knowledge the players had about the supplements and anti-doping laws.
He was waiting to hear back from World Cup organisers to get the go-ahead for the survey.
''Anecdotally, there seems to be a significant upsurge in the use of these nutrient supplements. But a lot of young people seem to feel they need to use these supplements to become elite athletes ... it seems to be willy-nilly, across-the-board use.''
He said rugby had obviously changed and it was now hard to tell the difference between loose forwards and midfield backs.
There was a place in rugby forthings such as recovery drinks but they had to be taken at the right time.
''We all lose salts and water when we are exercising so they need to be replaced ... but people look at these things and think they are going to turn you into Arnold Schwarzenegger.
''You look at someone like Richie McCaw and he is not the biggest man on the planet, but that does not affect his ability to play.
''I'm forever talking to young athletes and telling them they do not need these things. I tell them they are extracting the most expensive urine in the world.''
It worried him that some school teams were being supported by supplement companies.
