Former Georgia captain banned 11 years in doping scandal

Merab Sharikadze, one of Georgian rugby’s biggest names, has been banned for 11 years after investigators uncovered an organized doping scheme built around urine substitution, advance warnings of tests, and failures in basic sample observation. Five other players from Georgia’s senior men’s fifteens team were handed suspensions of up to six years, along with one member of support personnel.

The case grew out of Operation Obsidian, a joint investigation by World Rugby and the World Anti-Doping Agency that began in 2023 after World Rugby’s athlete passport programme flagged irregularities in urine samples over an extended period before the Men’s Rugby World Cup 2023 in France. WADA said the probe identified five instances of sample substitution. It also found that employees of the Georgian national anti-doping agency gave players advance notice of drug tests, while doping control officers failed to properly observe athletes and did not witness urine collection.

That combination points to more than individual cheating. It suggests a coordinated effort that exploited weak points in the testing chain, from advance leaks to inadequate supervision at the point of collection. In a sport that depends on surprise testing and strict chain-of-custody procedures, the case has exposed how easily those safeguards can be undermined when multiple people inside the system fail to do their jobs.

WADA president Witold Bańka said the case was outrageous and would send shockwaves through Georgian sport and government. WADA said it had lost confidence in the Georgian Anti-Doping Agency and called for wholesale changes. It also said it had brought the findings to the Georgian government’s attention, with further investigation into Georgian sport continuing.

Sharikadze’s fall is especially stark because he was one of Georgia’s most prominent players. World Rugby said he was due to play his 100th test in the 2024 Rugby Europe Championship. Instead, he last appeared for Georgia in March 2024, captaining them to a Rugby Europe Championship final win over Portugal, then disappeared from the international scene before matches against Fiji, Japan and Australia in July 2024.

The reputational damage extends beyond one captain. Georgia finished bottom of its pool at the 2023 Rugby World Cup without a win, and the scandal has deepened scrutiny of whether international rugby’s anti-doping systems are equipped to detect organized evasion, not just isolated positive tests. Sharikadze later said he faced a six-year rugby ban for providing his urine sample for other players to use, before moving into mixed martial arts and making his MMA debut in late November 2025.