More than 100 former rugby players are pursuing legal action against World Rugby and the governing bodies of England and Wales over failure to protect them from permanent injury due to repeated concussions in their playing days. The group is represented by Ry lands Legal, which said it was in contact with more than 185 former rugby union players. “This claim isn’t just about financial compensation,” Ry lands Legal said in a statement, “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.” In 2013, the NFL, the National Football League in the US settled lawsuits from thousands of former players who developed dementia or other concussion-related health problems. The NFL has paid out more than US$800 million to date and the settlement is expected to cost it US$1 billion (100 crores). The settlement did not include an admission from the NFL that it hid information from players about head injuries. In the current rugby case, the players’ allegations include the failure of the governing bodies to “take proper steps as the game turned professional to respond to a disregard for player safety and brain health at the club and international level”. It is claimed the rugby bodies did not educate the players about the risks of permanent brain damage. They also allege that regular monitoring and expert medical advice wasn’t taken. “The players we represent love the game,” Ry lands Legal said. “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.” Last week, former Wales rugby captain Ryan Jones announced he has been diagnosed with early onset dementia and probable CTE. Ry lands Legal said it also represents 75 rugby league players as part of a separate but similar potential claim against England’s Rugby Football League. Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated in England in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In its most common form, a game is played between two teams of 15 players each, using an oval-shaped ball on a rectangular field called a pitch. The field has H-shaped goalposts at both ends. Rugby union is a popular sport around the world, played by male and female players of all ages. In 2014, there were more than 6 million people playing worldwide, of whom 2.36 million were registered players. World Rugby, previously called the International Rugby Football Board and the International Rugby Board (IRB), has been the governing body for rugby union since 1886, and currently has 101 countries as full members and 18 associate members. In 1845, the first laws were written by pupils at Rugby School; other significant events in the early development of rugby include the decision by Blackheath F.C. to leave the Football Association in 1863 and, in 1895, the split between rugby union and rugby league. Historically rugby union was an amateur sport, but in 1995 formal restrictions on payments to players were removed, making the game openly professional at the highest level for the first time.
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