This week in the news we have had a few updates with the class action lawsuit between ex rugby union and league players versus their sport ruling bodies. Personally I think it smacks of desperation by the players with brain damage along with lawyers looking to make some money as there is no case.
A little over 6 years ago hundreds of ex professional and amateur rugby players started a class action case against the Rugby Football Union and Welsh RFU and the the Rugby League players against the Rugby Football league (RFL). Their case is for not being warned about the danger of the sports with regard to brain injuries and they are saying not enough was done to protect them during their playing careers.
The class action case is still in pre trial mode with 777 ex rugby union players and 317 ex league players. The latest is that the defence claims that the players lawyers have failed to hand over all the medical documents and that in itself is a breach of their obligations and that those defendants should be dismissed from the case. That would rule out 378 rugby union players and 132 league players straight off the bat without the case even having started.
The players are now discussing removing their defence team and installing someone else who has a firm that offers the necessary skills they think they require. This has taken them 6 years to get to this point and yes they must have some type of brain damage as this is proof enough already. The lawyers representing the players did not have the resources to do the case properly and why things have taken so long to get to this point. No one wants to give any ground on this case so every point is being fought over as this is the first of it's kind.
How this is proposed to move forward is that a few cases from rugby union and from rugby league are cherry picked and these cases will then represent all the others in the class action law suit.
World Rugby is obviously trying to stop this case from proceeding saying that the sport is a contact sport and protecting players is impossible. As an ex player I found it laughable that players were even contemplating this type of legal action because how stupid must you be?
This is no different than a boxer saying he had no idea that boxing could be harmful to your health and the end results could be some type of brain damage. Rugby is a contact sport plain and simple and you have to be very careful in the manner you play. Being careful does not mean that no harm will come to you either, but being more aware of where you place your head or how you play will help.
In todays rugby they talk about no head contact and if you do then you will be penalised for that action. The problem is not necessary the head contact because if you tackle someone hard enough the chances are their head knocks backwards at speed and they could be concussed. You are always taught to hit your opponent harder than he hits you when you tackle so the momentum you carry carries you forward sending your opponent backwards. This if a player is running full tilt towards you is an instant reversal and why whiplash is genuine.
The top international players are capped at 30 games per season with some squads smaller than others so they do not have as much player rotation. The 30 matches represents possibly 60 minutes per game plus two practice sessions during the week which will be full contact. The practice is actually more dangerous than the matches as it is full on physical contact for 90 minutes against players wanting your position in the team. The 30 matches is of significance if you are actually training completing another 60 matches during the week at training so realistically 90 contact matches per season.
You know this is going on as many players are injured during the week at training and we hear about this all the time. There is no safe part about playing rugby and you cannot kid yourself saying that the new rules will make it safer. Yes for the obvious head contacts it will help, but the whiplash type tackles that is the equivalent of a car crash then there is no chance.
When you add up the numbers if you get away with a couple of serios concussions every season you have done very well not counting the minor concussions which are not even registering. I know over my playing career of maybe 13 years I took some knocks to the head and was lucky enough to stop playing when I did because apparently another 10 years of playing may not have been very wise.
Ex players will tell you that this case is a joke and for them this is a non starter which should not be even happening. The dangers did not have to spelled out to us like kids because it was common sense. Rugby did not require warning labels like a piece of dangerous machinery does and this is the point of how stupid this all is. What they are better off doing instead of this case is setting up a trust fund with all the Rugby and League hierarchy maybe having one major game per season that all proceeds go to the trust. Players would gladly play for free for this type of match because this trust could benefit them in the future if they require medical assistance.
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