Nearly 200 rugby players have sued World Rugby, the Rugby Football Union (RFU) and the Welsh Rugby Union (WRU) as part of a class action, alleging that the governing bodies were negligent in that they did not do enough to protect the players from brain injury.
World Cup winner Steve Thompson, who is one of the litigants, told the media he was “put on suicide watch” as he struggled with early onset dementia over the last 18 months. “The sad news is just how many players are part of it now,” he told the media.
Meanwhile, one of the Rylands Law attorneys representing the players, Richard Boardman, alleged that the governing bodies are responsible for a “systematic failure” to protect the plaintiffs.
His firm also issued the following statement: “This claim isn’t just about financial compensation; it is also about making the game safer and ensuring current and former players get tested, so that if they are suffering a brain injury, they can get the clinical help they need.
“The players we represent love the game. We aim to challenge the current perceptions of the governing bodies, to reach a point where they accept the connection between repetitive blows to the head and permanent neurological injury and to take steps to protect players and support those who are injured.”
The plaintiffs allege that the defendants, as reported by The Daily Mail, failed to:
- Use expert medical advice on the risks of permanent brain damage and inform, educate and warn players.
- Ensure players received regular medical examination for evidence of brain damage.
- Investigate the effects of collisions on the brain.
- Reduce the amount of contact in training and the number of matches.
- Protect or extend the mandatory 21-day stand-down period after a concussion rather than reducing it.
- Act on the knowledge that concussions often have delayed presentation and that the five or 10-minute assessments during a match were wholly inadequate.
- Implement rules to limit the number of substitutions of non-injured players and reduce the risk to players of heavy collisions.
The defendants have countered that: “Our strategies to prevent, identify and manage head injuries are driven by a passion to safeguard our players and are founded on the latest science, evidence and independent expert guidance.”
Wales captain Ryan Jones told the Sunday Times earlier this summer that he felt like his “world is falling apart. I am really scared because I’ve got three children and three stepchildren and I want to be a fantastic dad. I lived 15 years of my life like a superhero and I’m not. I don’t know what the future holds.
“I am a product of an environment that is all about process and human performance. I’m not able to perform like I could, and I just want to lead a happy, healthy, normal life. I feel that’s been taken away and there’s nothing I can do. I can’t train harder, I can’t play the referee, I don’t know what the rules of the game are any more.”
