Australia intend to step up their drug-testing procedures during next year's World Cup to ensure there is no repeat of the 2000 fiasco.

Officials of the Australia Rugby League (ARL) have been under fire since it emerged that former Australia captain Gorden Tallis tipped off the authorities with his concerns about drug use during the last World Cup in Britain.

The story broke three days after former Australia captain Andrew Johns went public with his career-long battle with drugs, alcohol and depression.

The issue was discussed at a meeting of clubs in Sydney on Tuesday, when several chief executives raised concerns about the inconsistencies between testing at club and representative level.

At present, representative players are only subject to game-day testing, whereas at club level players are also subjected to random in-house testing during the week.

Now the ARL plan to introduce in-house testing for illicit substances at representative level.

ARL chief executive Geoff Carr told The Australian: "I will be taking it up with the players' association at the earliest opportunity.

"Obviously with the World Cup coming up, if we have players in camp for something which goes five weeks, it would be reasonable to suggest we would introduce the club policy."

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