Former Irish rugby players to take proceedings against IRFU over brain injuries

A number of former Irish rugby players have taken a case against the Irish Rugby Football Union (IRFU) over claims they suffered serious brain injuries during their playing careers.

The case if being taken by a Dublin-based solicitors firm Maguire McClaffey LLP, who are based in the Capel Building in Capel Street. The number of individuals involved and their names are undisclosed.

The company mainly specialises in litigation and personal injury law dealing with all types of accident claim compensation cases.

The legal action comes in tandem with proceedings issued by UK-based legal firm Rylands Law on behalf of a group of professional and semi-professional players against World Rugby, the Rugby Football Union (RFU) and the Welsh Rugby Union (WRU).

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[ ‘Conclusive evidence’ repetitive head impacts can cause brain disease ]

Maguire McClafferty was not at liberty to go into the details of the action due to client confidentiality but expected proceedings to be issued before October.

“There are Irish players involved, yes,” said senior partner Manus McClafferty, who would not expand on the number of players involved.

“I won’t do that. That’s unwise,” he said. “But I can tell you that proceedings are prepared and will, probably, be issued, I believe, by the end of September. I have them ready.”

In the UK Rylands said their application for a group litigation order is the biggest “class action” lawsuit to be launched outside the United States. In all, Rylands represents more than 185 rugby union players aged in their 30s, 40s and 50s.

The issues for the Irish claimants are similar in nature to those of former rugby players in England and Wales, who have been diagnosed with early-onset dementia and other irreversible neurological impairments, which they claim were caused by playing rugby and receiving repeated blows to the head during their careers. All of them have now retired due to concerns over the lasting effects.

“Yes very much so [similar types of issues as the UK players]. CTE [chronic traumatic encephalopathy]. Exactly the same,” said McClafferty.

There is no timeline set out and the pace of the proceedings will be determined very much by the approach taken by the IRFU and their insurers.

“Once the proceedings issue then they just have to take their course,” added McClafferty. “The timeline will be decided very much by the IRFU, the way in which they approach the cases. We can go the long route or go the other route. It is up to the IRFU.”

Emails were originally sent to the Irish players in the summer of 2020 outlining how a new law firm, Ryland Legal Limited, put together by solicitor and director Richard Boardman, were setting up in London and in the process of putting together a large legal action to seek damages from various governing bodies.

It is not the first time the IRFU have had to face an issue of this nature. The parents of Benjamin Robinson, the 14-year-old Carrickfergus Grammar School rugby player who died as a result of head injuries sustained in a rugby match in January 2011, issued legal proceedings in a Belfast High Court against several rugby institutions and two individuals.

The IRFU, Ulster Rugby, World Rugby, Carrickfergus Grammar School, the coach of the school team, Neal Kennedy, and the referee, David Brown, who officiated at the match were all named. The case was settled out of court with the family receiving an undisclosed sum.

In 2014 Lucas Neville, an Irish schoolboy, who suffered a serious head injury during a schools rugby match secured €2.75 million damages, plus costs, under a settlement approved by the High Court.

In the Rylands case, the claimants, who include former Wales captain Ryan Jones, England’s 2003 World Cup-winning hooker Steve Thompson, Wales flanker Ryan Jones and former All Blacks prop Carl Hayman, argue that the sport’s governing bodies were negligent in that they failed to take reasonable action to protect players from permanent injury caused by repetitive concussive and sub-concussive blows.

“I feel like my world is falling apart,” Jones said. “I am really scared because I’ve got three children and three stepchildren and I want to be a fantastic dad. I lived 15 years of my life like a superhero and I’m not. I don’t know what the future holds.

“I am a product of an environment that is all about process and human performance. I’m not able to perform like I could, and I just want to lead a happy, healthy, normal life. I feel that’s been taken away and there’s nothing I can do. I can’t train harder, I can’t play the referee, I don’t know what the rules of the game are any more.”

A pre-action letter of claim was issued to the same governing bodies on behalf of a group of nine players in December 2020. The parties have been unable to agree on a settlement since then, so the matter now appears likely to end up in court. The issuing of proceedings will mean the court takes over the management of the cases, putting the matter on a formal pathway to trial.