Rugby: Concussion victims to sue union and league

This step is historic. At least for France. According to L’Equipe newspaper, which revealed the information, a group of fifteen players will file administrative appeals for breaches of their security and information obligations on the part of the French Rugby Federation (FFR) and the National Rugby League (LNR). All of these players were victims of repeated head trauma while playing in France.

This is the first time that the French Football Federation and the LNR have been attacked in this way, two years after the International Federation (World Rugby), the English and Welsh Federation were targeted by Complaints from a hundred players.

Two Frenchmen are among the complainants

The French movement is carried out by the law firm Alecto. Among these fifteen plaintiffs, we find a large majority of foreign players, Welshman Alex Popham and Englishman Steve Thompson passed through Brave, former New Zealand columnist Toulon Carl Hayman, Canadian second line Jimmy Cudmore (Clairemont). The only two Frenchmen to go up are Quentin Garcia, former Chambéry hooker, and Sarah Schlagow, former second-line Stade Rennes.

The plaintiffs are calling for strict safeguards and a reduction in the head effectWhether in the game or training. So far, the minimum rest period is six days as recommended by a group of experts (Concussion In Sport Group). The plaintiffs want to extend it to three weeks.

In France, during matches, there is a protocol concussion reduction from 30% to 10% Players who remain on the field after a collision with the head. According to Nino Arnault, one of the plaintiffs’ attorneys, “Almost all of our clients have been returned to the field, during French Championship matches or training, when they were not supposed to be.”

Alex Popham or Carl Hyman suffers from dementia and has received more than a hundred damaging blows to the head during their careers, according to experts from the UK’s Dementia Institute.