A referee was to blame for an injury during an amateur match in Wales which left a player paralysed for life, the Court of Appeal in Britain ruled yesterday.

Richard Vowles (29), who was hurt in a scrum during the final seconds of a derby between Llanharan and Tondu in January 1998, can now sue the Welsh Rugby Union (WRU) for damages.

Rugby authorities feared such a ruling could open the floodgates to similar claims and that amateur sport, in which players accept the risks involved, could be changed for ever.

But Lord Phillips, the Master of the Rolls who gave the judgment of the court yesterday, said this was unlikely to happen.

John Leighton Williams QC, who represented referee David Evans and the WRU, had told the appeal judges that if they upheld the High Court decision that an amateur referee owed a duty of care to the players, volunteers would no longer be prepared to serve as referees.

Lord Phillips said the referee had been found liable because he had failed to implement a law designed to minimise risk when there were no experienced front row forwards for scrums.

The referee should have called for non-contestable scrums, in which neither team is allowed to push.

The judge said a referee's failure to implement a safety law was likely to be rare.

"Much rarer will be the case where there are grounds for alleging that it has caused a serious injury," he said.

"Serious injuries are, happily, rare, but they are an inherent risk of the game. The risk is one which those who play rugby believe is worth taking, having regard to the satisfaction that they get from the game.

"We would not expect the much more remote risk of facing a claim in negligence to discourage those who take their pleasure in the game by acting as referees."

Leighton Williams had told the judges that the WRU was heavily in debt and public liability insurers were considering excluding cover for sporting injuries.

Lord Phillips said: "We cannot take judicial notice of the finances of the WRU, nor of the intentions of public liability insurers."

He said the sport could not be treated as a special case.

"A referee of a game of rugby football owes a duty of care to the players," he said.

The appeal against the High Court ruling by the WRU and referee was dismissed.

The accident happened when the front rows failed to engage properly and Vowles buckled with the pressure on his spine.

The substitution of an inexperienced player for an injured prop was argued to be a key factor in the scrum collapse.

Last December, a British High Court judge held that the WRU, which accepted vicarious responsibility for the actions of referee Evans, was liable to pay compensation to Vowles.

None of the parties was in court for the handing down of the judgment yesterday.