Testing of 1st XV Top Four rugby tournament players will be abandoned, Drug Free Sport New Zealand has announced.
Over the past three years, no positive tests have been recorded at the annual competition between the country's best four secondary school teams.
Only eight players were tested in each of the opening days of the tournament, which won't be held this year due to COVID-19.
DFSNZ has had the programme independently reviewed and decided to expand the education side but stop the Top Four rugby testing.
The review concluded that the testing should be moved away from schools and into the high performance area.
"In the face of growing risks internationally in school sport," says DFSNZ chief executive Nick Paterson. "Our goal has always been to support our up and coming athletes so that they continue the culture of clean sport and high integrity in New Zealand.
"This review has been a great opportunity to step back and consider our programme within the context of issues around athlete welfare and school sport, in line with our original goals.
"We want to improve the health, wellbeing, and good decision making of our young athletes, not add unnecessary pressure."
Paterson says they will continue their 'Good Clean Sport' workshops in secondary schools, which were attended by 2500 students last year.
"The workshops are presented by current or former athletes and are focused on helping young sportspeople to make good decisions," Paterson says.
"But while clean sport education was DFSNZ’s original goal, naturally attention became focused on the small number of limited-screen tests that DFSNZ conducted (eight tests per year) within the schools 1st XV tournament.
"This testing programme will continue, but within the high performance environment such as sport-specific academies where support staff already have long experience of drug testing.
"We want all young people have a quality sport experience and participate in a fair environment."
