AUSTRALIAN rugby league captain Darren Lockyer has denied taking drugs and says he was nowhere near retired teammate Andrew Johns when he was caught with an ecstasy tablet in London last week.
The Broncos and Queensland State of Origin star said today that he had been in the UK, but that he was not with Johns, who has since admitted to more than a decade of drug use.
"I think it's very unfair really, it's guilt by association," Lockyer told the Seven Network when asked about newspaper reports that he was with Johns.
"I was over there in London with my fiancee, working for the NRL.
"I was nowhere near The Church or anywhere like that," he said in reference to the nightclub where Johns said he'd been given an ecstasy tablet before being arrested by London police.
When asked if he took drugs, Lockyer said: "No. No."
'No Tallis report'
Earlier, ARL chief executive Geoff Carr rejected suggestions that ex-Kangaroos forward and current NRL board member Gorden Tallis made a formal complaint about drug use by several Australian players, including Johns, during the 2000 World Cup.
Carr's comments are at odds with the then Kangaroos coach Chris Anderson, who has told Fairfax newspapers that Tallis lodged the complaint after Australia won the 2000 Cup in England.
Anderson accused ARL powerbrokers of taking no action about the drugs issues.
The Australian Rugby League boss said he knew of rumours about drug taking, which were investigated, but found to be completely baseless.
"He (Tallis) didn't make any complaint to us,'' Carr told the ABC.
"We heard rumours in 2000 about drug allegations after the tour was over, well after the tour.
"We investigated those as best we could. There were quite a number of drug tests taken on that tour, they were all negative, no one came forward to us so on the basis that we had no real evidence we couldn't substantiate the rumours.
"If we would have had evidence of anybody, anybody at all on that tour we would've acted, there is no doubt,'' he said.
"It is one of the worst things as far we're concerned in any sport is drugs in sport but you can't blame someone or act on anything without appropriate evidence, and we never had it.''
Anderson also said: "The game's done Andrew Johns a great disservice. The game has known what was going on for a long time, it's endemic. But it did nothing about it.''
Johns shocked the rugby league world this week when he admitted to being in the grips of drugs and alcohol for the majority of his playing career over the past 10 years.
