Brain injury cases should be thrown out, High Court told

The High Court has been told that hundreds of cases in rugby's multi-million-pound concussion legal action should be thrown out.

Players from both codes of the sport claim that the authorities failed to put safeguards in place to protect them from the consequences of repeated head impacts.

World Rugby, the Welsh Rugby Union (WRU), Rugby Football Union (RFU) and Rugby Football League (RFL) deny breaching a duty of care to protect the players from injury.

Lawyers representing the governing bodies have argued that claims should be thrown out due to documents surrounding the neurological testing process not being disclosed, which they claim is a breach of a 2024 court order.

At a hearing on Wednesday, they said that failure to comply with the order should lead to dismissal of 132 of the claims against the rugby league bodies and 378 of the claims against the rugby union bodies.

Michael Kent KC, for World Rugby, Welsh Rugby and the Rugby Football Union, said in written submissions that having the claims thrown out was "clearly a measure of last resort", but that "compliance has still not been achieved".

William Audland KC, for the rugby league bodies, said in written submissions that non-compliance with court orders was "systemic and without good reason", and that the claims should be dismissed.

Susan Rodway KC, for the players, said in written submissions that the breaches were "neither serious nor significant" given the "context of this complex and documentarily voluminous litigation", and that throwing out the claims would be an "extreme response".

She continued: "This litigation is of significant public interest and societal importance for the continuance of contact/collision sports in the UK.

"It would be highly undesirable for a significant number of the former players to lose their claims on procedural grounds."

There have been legal clashes over the sharing of the former players' medical information since the action began in 2020.

In a further development Richard Boardman, who has represented the claimants through Rylands Garth, has informed the court that he intends to stop acting on behalf of the former players.

"What impact is that likely to have?" asked judge, Senior Master Jeremy David Cook, about the change of solicitors.

"I have been frustrated from day one at the progress of this litigation. I expect that the pace is picked up."

He went on to describe the litigants as "passengers" in the lengthy process.

England Rugby World Cup winners Steve Thompson, Mark Regan and Phil Vickery and former Wales internationals Colin Charvis, Gavin Henson, Ryan Jones, Lee Byrne and Alix Popham are among the high-profile former players involved in the case.

In a statement released after Wednesday's hearing, Popham said the claimants thanked Rylands Garth for their work but felt the switch in representatives was necessary due to the "scale and complexity" of the case.

He added: "We believe this represents a positive step in progressing the litigation. We hope it will help provide the momentum required to move the proceedings forward as efficiently as possible and address some of the factors that have contributed to the pace of the litigation to date."

The case continues.