South Wales Echo

Former players in lawsuit against rugby authoritie­s

- BEN JAMES Reporter ben.james@walesonlin­e.co.uk

A GROUP of former rugby players are this week issuing proceeding­s against World Rugby, the Rugby Football Union and the Welsh Rugby Union over what they claim is failure to protect them from permanent injury caused by repetitive concussive and sub-concussive blows.

The class action, which will be the biggest of its kind outside of the US, has been announced by Rylands Law on behalf of numerous profession­al and semi-profession­al rugby union players who are affected by various irreversib­le neurologic­al impairment­s. These include early onset dementia, probable CTE (chronic traumatic encephalop­athy), epilepsy, Parkinson’s disease and motor neurone disease.

All of the players involved in the action are in their 30s, 40s and 50s. The progressio­n of the lawsuit, which was first announced back in December 2020, comes after former Wales captain Ryan Jones revealed last week that he has been diagnosed with brain damage at the age of 41 and would be joining the legal action.

Rylands represents over 185 rugby union players with brain damage, as well as 75 players in rugby league as part of a separate potential claim.

Those 185 players, profession­al and semi-profession­al, are moving ahead with their legal action this week. The Echo understand­s that a claim involving amateur players and women will proceed at a later date.

The claimants raise a number of allegation­s in their legal action. Among these they cite the alleged failure by the rugby authoritie­s to take proper steps when the game turned profession­al to respond to a disregard for player safety and brain health. The alleged failure to provide adequate steps to inform, educate or warn the claimants about the risks of permanent brain damage is also raised.

So too is a claim over no steps being taken to reduce the amount of contact allowed in training and the number of matches per year, as well as alleged failures over devising new rules to limit the number of replacemen­ts.

As well as Jones, a number of highprofil­e former players have spoken about their experience­s of being diagnosed with early onset dementia in the past couple of years. Former Wales No 8 Alix Popham and exDragons centre Adam Hughes have talked in depth about their struggles.

Other former players such as exEngland hooker Steve Thompson, Dan Scarbrough, Carl Hayman, Neil Clark, Jason Hobson, Lenny Woodard, Neil Spence and Michael Lipman have all come forward. The Echo has previously reported that six of the original 10 test cases, including Popham and Hughes, are Welsh – with some not yet choosing to go public with their diagnosis.

We now understand the number of former Welsh profession­als involved to be around 50.

In a statement, Rylands Law said: “CTE is the disease discovered by Dr Benet Omalu in American football player Mike Webster and is the subject of the movie Concussion, starring Will

Smith. It is a cruel and progressiv­e degenerati­ve disease of the brain found in many players of contact sports leading to repetitive brain trauma. These players include such well-known names as Aaron Hernandez (NFL), Jeff Astle (football), Shane Tuck (Aussie Rules), Peter Jones (rugby union) and Derek Boogaard (NHL).

“We are seeing the same worrying symptoms in numerous cases across both codes of rugby. These symptoms include chronic depression, aggression, significan­t memory loss, incontinen­ce, drug and alcohol addiction, and, in some cases, suicide attempts. “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 have 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 a r e injured.” Richard

Boardman, the lawyer who will be leading the legal action on behalf of Rylands, recently told the Daily Mail that the sport was facing a “ticking time bomb”. He emphasised in that same interview that the vast majority of players involved in the lawsuit don’t want to harm the game, but want to make it a safer sport.

A World Rugby spokespers­on, contacted before the announceme­nt was made public, said: “As of Sunday afternoon, World Rugby has not been issued with a legal claim. It would be inappropri­ate to comment until we have received the formal details of any action being taken.”

The Press Associatio­n report sources which indicated the WRU felt it “impossible” to comment having not seen details of the claim. The RFU has also been contacted for comment. Those three governing bodies had released a joint statement in December 2020 in response to the initial claim. Since then, they have chosen not to comment on the legal action. They did stress, however, that player welfare was their priority.

“We have been deeply saddened to hear the brave personal accounts from former players,” read the statement at the time.

“As a result of scientific knowledge improving, rugby has developed its approach to concussion surveillan­ce, education, management and prevention across the whole game.

“We have implemente­d coach, referee and player education and best practice protocols across the game and rugby’s approach to head injury assessment­s and concussion protocols has been recognised and led to many other team sports adopting our guidance.

“We will continue to use medical evidence and research to keep evolving our approach. As with any potential legal proceeding­s, it would be inappropri­ate to comment on the specifics.”

 ?? STU FORSTER ?? Former Wales captain Ryan Jones
STU FORSTER Former Wales captain Ryan Jones
 ?? ?? Alix Popham has previously spoken about his struggles
Alix Popham has previously spoken about his struggles

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