World Rugby has denied it owes a legal duty of care to players, arguing injuries are a “foreseeable and inherent risk” of the sport as it filed its defence to the concussion lawsuit.
The sport’s governing body, along with the Rugby Football Union and Welsh Rugby Union, is being sued by hundreds of former players who claim they are suffering from neurological difficulties caused by repeated head contacts.
Rylands Garth, the law firm representing the claimants, alleges this amounts to a breach of the governing body’s duty of care to its players. However, in its written defence, which was filed at the High Court on Thursday, World Rugby’s lawyers stated that: “The Claimants’ pleaded case is that World Rugby, as the international governing body of the sport of Rugby Union, owed a duty of care, ‘to all players of rugby union’.
“The inference of this allegation is that World Rugby owed a duty of care to each and every player of the sport of Rugby Union wherever located in the world, at whatever level the sport was being played, regardless of the standard of rugby played, and regardless of any knowledge, awareness (still less control, or supervision) by World Rugby, and regardless of the time-period alleged… This is denied.
“In any event, as a matter of law, there is no duty owed to a participant in a sport (in particular a contact sport) to ensure that a participant is not exposed to a risk of injury inherent in participating in the sport itself.”