By Alexandra Saba, Staff Writer
After three years of case building, 295 former rugby players from ages twenty-two to eighty, backed by Rylands Garth Law Firm, have taken the first step towards justice for their alleged collective brain injuries and declining quality of life. They are aching to finalize the first steps in a class action lawsuit against World Rugby, England’s Rugby Football Union, and the Welsh Rugby Union in London’s High Court. With the large number of plaintiffs and the high caliber of players, like World Cup winner Steve Thompson and former Wales captain Ryan Jones, leading the charge, this legal undertaking has the potential to be one of the most significant brain injury lawsuits in both rugby and all sports in the twenty-first century.
On December 1 of this year, these former players clamored to file a Group Litigation Order, which would allow them to consolidate their compensation claims into a group action case instead of as individual claims. Jointly, they assert a cocktail of allegations faced, including early onset dementia, CTE, epilepsy, and Parkinson’s Disease among others. They believe these rugby organizations did nothing to put plans in place to protect the health and safety of the players, who regularly experience significant blows to the head and body. However, Master Jeremy Cook denied their request for a GLO, citing a “gaping hole” in the evidence provided by the plaintiffs, which dealt a blow to the group’s legal momentum. Even Susan Rodway KC, the players’ lawyer who previously represented them in an earlier case in June 2023, admitted that there were “no medical records” for some cases. While this undeniably sets back the case’s progress, which has already been moving at a pace as slow as molasses, the media coverage of the hopeful lawsuit is amplifying existing negative public sentiment regarding the correlation between rugby and brain injuries. The next hearing is set for either late April or early May, with Master Jeremy Cook implying a willingness to take a look at the case with fresh eyes, given the claimants adequately supply ample evidence that matches the severity of the allegations.
When it comes to the allegations however, I would be remiss not to relay the many public claims that have been made by some of the leaders of the case, like Steve Thompson. The former rugby player for England has been diagnosed with early onset dementia and has publicly declared he regrets playing the sport. Thompson alleges he cannot even remember winning the World Cup, a highly-televised moment that encourages many young people across the globe to play the pulse-pounding, adrenaline-fueled collision of strategy and athleticism. Thompson retired in 2011 due to a neck injury, but due to his dementia, has even been put on suicide watch in the past. His experience is not one of a unicorn in a field of donkeys; rather, it echoes a broader pattern that demands serious attention and consideration. There is a growing body of research that suggests a correlation between repeated head injury in rugby (and similar sports like American football) and the development of degenerative brain diseases. This is especially the case among players who play in forward positions (props, hookers, locks, flankers, and number eights) who regularly engage in tough physical contact during scrums, mauls, and other close-contact play. Significantly, many of the players named in the potential lawsuit hold forward positions- Mark Regan was a hooker, Colin Charvis played flanker or number eight, Phil Vickery was a tighthead prop, Ryan Jones led Wales as a flanker and number eight, and Steve Thompson was a hooker. When describing the severity of the lack of concussion-awareness in rugby’s culture in respect to his own life, Thompson desperately recalled the following:
“I never really knew what a concussion was – I thought it was being out cold. No. It can be any hit on the head. That happened almost every day in my career – I passed out so many times on the scrum machine. I did 100 scrums in a day once. The boys would say, ‘He is having a nap’ and carry on.”
Player cases similar to Thompson’s going back to the 1970s make up the current attempted lawsuit, which is why Master Jeremy Cook’s exclamation that the GLO lacked evidence to continue is so surprising. Given the significant length of time building the case against World Rugby, England’s Rugby Football Union, and the Welsh Rugby Union and the many public accusations by former players, the further prolongation of this first step to be classified as a class action will likely bring more pain to those who have real confirmation of their suffering as a result of the sport.
In discussing the severity of the types of regular hits, Bill Ribbans, a trauma surgeon who has treated Thompson in the past, iterates that “being tackled by modern-day rugby player is like being hit by a truck.” When considering how many times a week players are experiencing these car accident-adjacent type injuries, it does not require much to lend credence to the allegations made by the former players. Yet Ribbans does not give up on the sport itself, suggesting there are small changes that can be implemented that can significantly change the injury rate for players. He puts forth possibly reducing the number of high-contact training throughout the week and reviewing substitution rules that allow “fresh players” to come onto the field and forcibly play against already “tired opponents.” This might be a great solution especially taking into account that some players like Neil Spence, a former Leicester Tigers and Gloucester rugby player, who has experienced neurodegeneration himself stated:
“I still love the game, for what it has given me and the person it has made me. Rugby has values and I hold those values dear… The places I’ve been, the friends I’ve made, the memories, but if I knew that it was going to turn out the way it has, with the issues I have and problems that are only going to get worse, would I have still played? Sadly, the answer is no.”
There is a clear sentiment among rugby players that they enjoy the sport and appreciate the good it has done in their lives, however the damage it has done to their health has ruined the sport beyond enjoyment. If the health risks currently linked to the sport were largely diminished due to some of the small changes that Ribbans indicates, the conversations we could be having can be around the sheer excitement for the exhilarating game itself, rather than the terrifying, potentially fatal health outcomes for players who brought us some of the sport’s best moments.
While Steve Thompson’s individual circumstance represents the stories of many of the former players involved, the onus lies on the legal representation of these players to properly portray the distress and hardship these players have faced. They deserve to receive at least a modicum of justice for what they’ve suffered, and in the same breath, protect future players who will inevitably face similar fates if nothing is changed.
