Former Wales star releases statement as ‘scale and complexity’ rises in multi-million-pound concussion legal battle

Rugby’s most high-profile court case remains in the balance after two days of proceedings at the High Court.

Six years after rugby’s multi-million-pound concussion legal battle was first raised, Senior Master Jeremy David Cook will deliberate on whether the claimants have provided sufficient documents surrounding the neurological testing process.

The case involves 561 former rugby league and union players who claim that the governing bodies in the sport have failed to provide safeguarding against repeated head collisions.

The former players have cited Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE), a progressive brain disease linked to repeated head injuries, and other neurological issues as a result of their years of playing the sport, claiming that World Rugby, the Welsh Rugby Union (WRU), the Rugby Football Union (RFU) and the Rugby Football League (RFL) have failed to adequately protect them from these consequences.

Lawyers acting for the governing bodies have called on the judge to strike out the cases that do not have all the required documents, in an effort to reduce further delays ahead of the impending trial, arguing that there had been “wholesale and widespread non-compliance” with the court order to disclose all the documents.

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A change in lawyer and false reporting

In a further twist, the claimants’ lawyer Richard Boardman will no longer be acting on the players’ behalf, with former Wales star Alix Popham claiming that a switch in representation was necessary due to the “scale and complexity” of the case.

The judge had previously criticised Boardman’s reaction to the order, stating that there had been a “total failure by Mr Boardman to get to grips and deal with the criticisms that have been made”.

Popham was forced to release a statement after it was falsely reported by The Telegraph that the lawyer, who represented the claimants through Rylands Garth, had quit the case – a damaging suggestion to the claimants.

In the statement, Popham said: “As the case has developed in both scale and complexity, the committees concluded that it is in the best interests of the claimants to appoint a firm with the resources and specialist expertise required to lead the litigation through its next phase.

“We would like to reassure the Court, our fellow claimants and the wider rugby family that 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.”

Despite the reassurance from Popham, Senior Master Cook claimed that the change in lawyer raised “more questions than answers” as further delays are now expected as the new representation familiarises themselves with the case.

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