A leading doctor has fuelled allegations of drug-taking in French rugby with claims that international players took amphetamines before Five Nations matches during the 1970s and '80s.

Earlier this week, former national coach Pierre Berbizier spoke out against alleged widespread drug abuse in the domestic French game, and this led to the sport's governing body demanding an investigation.

Berbizier claimed that drug-taking was rife and the rugby authorities were doing nothing to combat it and in fact were the cause of it because they imposed such a hectic schedule on the players.

The allegations were refuted by Serge Blanco, Berbizier's former team-mate and now president of the French National League.

However Dr Jean-Pierre de Mondenard, author of several books on drug-taking in sport, added weight to the allegations.

"In the '70s, a French international admitted to me that the team doctor gave them Captagon for the Five Nations matches and told them that they were vitamins," said de Mondenard in yesterday's Daily Mail.

"Captagon is a well-known amphetamine. Taking it was common practice. For each French match the doctor provided the team with some of it. It was happening in rugby league as well, though nobody took an interest.

"Another international in the 1970s, who today often passes comment in the media, confirmed to me that the use of amphetamines was common occurrence, even general practice, during the '70s and '80s."

But France captain Fabien Pelous played down the controversy, stating: "It would be Utopian to think that rugby is the only sport to be spared this (drugs) curse. I have never seen illicit acts, but there must have been cases."