THE illicit drug culture that engulfed Andrew Johns and other players first kicked in during Australia's sordid World Cup campaign in England in 2000 - and the game's powerbrokers did little about it.

As rugby league comes to grips with Johns's decade-long drug habit, The Sun-Herald can reveal a number of players were first exposed to ecstasy and cocaine during the tournament, which the Kangaroos remarkably won.

Johns and former international Wendell Sailor, who is serving a two-year ban for testing positive to cocaine, were both part of the 22-man Australian squad. Players on the tour, on which heavy alcohol consumption was commonplace, even had a term for their drug use: "getting loose".

"It was the first time I had ever come near this sort of stuff," said a Kangaroos tour member, who declined to be named. "But it [ecstasy] was everywhere. That's where it all started for a lot of us."

Such was the drug consumption, it reduced former international Gorden Tallis "to tears" on one occasion.

Players and officials say Johns was a regular user. After the successful campaign, officials at some clubs blamed the champion Newcastle halfback of being "the ringleader" in illicit drug-taking.

Last night, then-Australian coach Chris Anderson admitted drugs "were an issue" on the tour and added the game had failed Johns - among others - since then. "The game's done Andrew Johns a great disservice," he said. "The game has known what was going on for a long time. It's endemic. But it did nothing about it."

Asked if drugs were an issue for him during the World Cup, Anderson said: "It would be unfair to say that the drug culture in the game started then. It's everywhere in society.

"I'm not aware of anyone taking drugs on that tour. [But] I didn't socialise with the players."

Australian Rugby League chief executive Geoff Carr said he had investigated the rumours about "certain players" and insisted players were tested after every match. He said Tallis never complained to the ARL.

"We'd heard the rumours and we took them very seriously," Carr said. "We just didn't have the evidence to take further action against any player."

Tallis confronted team management during the tour and, upon his return, complained to Broncos coach Wayne Bennett, who raised his fears about the drugs menace with league officials.

Tallis, who is now an NRL board member, did not return calls yesterday but he and Bennett are both said to be bemused at Johns's admission on The Footy Show because they highlighted the issue about six years ago.

Tallis is believed to have confronted Johns over suspicions he took drugs during the World Cup campaign, while Mal Meninga and Kevin Walters also berated Johns in June 2001 about being a better role model.

Tallis was later appointed national captain ahead of Johns because of fears among ARL officials a drug scandal would do the game damage.

A member of the Kangaroos' team management said Tallis was distraught about drug use among some of his Kangaroos teammates. It is understood the drug taking peak on that tour was after Australia defeated New Zealand in the final on November 25, 2000.

"At one party, there were six to eight players who were off their face - Gorden left in tears," one source said.

Anderson and then-captain Brad Fittler had "read the riot act" to the squad at the start of the campaign about an incident involving ecstasy during the team's final Australian trial match.

In his 2006 autobiography, War-horse, former international Shane Webcke pinpointed the World Cup as a turning point in the drug problem. "There was a tour I went on [where] recreational drug taking was apparently rife," Webcke wrote.

"From what I later learned, ecstasy was the drug in question."