High Court permits former players’ concussion claims against rugby bodies to proceed

The High Court has allowed legal claims brought by more than 500 former rugby players over alleged brain injuries to continue to trial in a ruling on Friday, 21 August 2026. Senior Master Jeremy David Cook made the decision after consideration of disclosure failures and a recent change of legal representatives for the claimants.

The action, which began in 2020, is a multi-million-pound concussion legal battle brought by players from both rugby union and league who allege governing bodies failed to implement safeguards against repeated head impacts. World Rugby, the Welsh Rugby Union (WRU), the Rugby Football Union (RFU) and the Rugby Football League (RFL) deny breaching a duty of care. The claimants are now represented by KP Law after lawyer Richard Boardman, who had acted through Rylands Garth, ceased to represent them.

Defence lawyers had sought to strike out cases involving 377 union players and 153 league players on the basis that court-ordered disclosure of medical documents had not been complied with. Senior Master Cook said that while he would have dismissed the claims he decided, "with some hesitation," they should proceed to trial subject to "conditions" to be fixed at a further hearing, describing the matters as having "exceptional circumstances" and a "particular element of public importance going beyond the individual claims."

The judge warned of competing public interests, saying: "This litigation has the potential to greatly impact the way in which one of our national sports is conducted at amateur and professional levels." He also acknowledged efficiency concerns: "I of course recognise the countervailing public interest that litigation should be conducted efficiently." Cook added that delay and unnecessary expense to date "can be remedied going forward by tight case management and the unnecessary expense can be compensated in costs."

Orders issued in 2024 required the players to disclose medical reports and documents, including neuropsychological assessments and brain scans. Further orders were made in July last year and the claimants lost an appeal against the July 2025 order, with a High Court judge saying it was issued after a "serious erosion of the confidence the court could safely place in the way the disclosure process had been conducted."

Counsel for the defendants said non-compliance remained widespread; William Audland KC submitted that non-compliance with court orders was "systemic and without good reason." Susan Rodway KC, for the players, argued the breaches were "neither serious nor significant" in the context of "this complex and documentarily voluminous litigation" and said the change in law firm would create "a completely different regime going forward in which both the court and the defendants can have full confidence."

Senior Master Cook welcomed the switch in solicitors, stating: "The Court can take comfort in the fact that the claimants are no longer to be represented by Rylands Garth." He added: "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." The judge also observed that the breaches were not caused by the players themselves, noting: "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, in a witness statement, said: "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 added 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." High-profile former players named among the claimants include Steve Thompson, Mark Regan, Phil Vickery, Colin Charvis, Gavin Henson, Ryan Jones, Lee Byrne and Popham.

A further hearing will determine the conditions the court will impose on the proceedings, after which the litigation will continue to trial subject to those conditions.