High court allows rugby brain injury case to go on

The cases of hundreds of players in rugby's multi-million-pound concussion legal battle have been allowed to continue by the High Court.

A judge last month considered whether to throw out the claims due to failure to comply with an order to provide documents surrounding the neurological testing process.

Senior Master Jeremy David Cook has now allowed the legal battle, which has already stretched six years, to continue to trial after a change in lawyers representing more than 500 players from both rugby union and league.

They claim the governing bodies 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 acting for those organisations wanted cases involving 377 players in union and 153 in league to be struck out.

In a ruling on Friday, Senior Master Cook said that while he would have thrown out the claims, he decided "with some hesitation" that they should proceed to trial, subject to "conditions" to be decided at a further hearing.

He continued that there were "exceptional circumstances" in the case and that it had a "particular element of public importance going beyond the individual claims".

He said: "This litigation has the potential to greatly impact the way in which one of our national sports is conducted at amateur and professional levels.

"I of course recognise the countervailing public interest that litigation should be conducted efficiently."

He continued: "I recognise the delay and unnecessary expense caused to date, but this delay can be remedied going forward by tight case management and the unnecessary expense can be compensated in costs."

In July it was announced that lawyer Richard Boardman, who had represented the claimants through Rylands Garth, would no longer be acting on the ex-players' behalf.

KP Law has taken on the case, with Senior Master Cook stating: "The Court can take comfort in the fact that the claimants are no longer to be represented by Rylands Garth.

"Had Mr Boardman remained the solicitor conducting this litigation, I could not have had any confidence that future court orders would be complied with timeously or at all."

But he said that the breaches of court orders were not caused by the players themselves, adding: "Given the vulnerability of many of these claimants, it might be said that they should not be punished for the sins of their legal representative."

Former Wales international Alix Popham said in a witness statement: "I would like to make clear to the court that neither the committee nor the underlying claimants have been properly kept abreast of the deficiencies in our representation."

He continued that the claimants "received numerous assurances from Rylands Garth/Boardman as to the progress of the case" and that "it was only upon speaking to counsel directly that we realised some of the risks involved and the need to change solicitors".

In 2024, lawyers for the players were told to disclose medical reports and documents, including neuropsychological assessments and brain scans for the players, to the governing bodies.

In July last year, the High Court issued further orders related to the disclosure of documents, meaning the claims could be thrown out if not followed.

The players then lost an appeal against the July 2025 order, with a High Court judge saying that it was issued after a "serious erosion of the confidence the court could safely place in the way the disclosure process had been conducted".

But lawyers for the governing bodies said that the 2024 orders had still not been complied with in several cases, meaning that just shy of 500 cases should be dismissed before a trial.

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

But Susan Rodway KC, for the players, told the court in written submissions that the breaches were "neither serious nor significant" given the "context of this complex and documentarily voluminous litigation".

She also said that the change in law firm meant there would be a "completely different regime going forward in which both the court and the defendants can have full confidence".

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