The High Court granted relief from sanctions on Friday, keeping alive about half of a 1,000-claimant group action after a dispute over disclosed medical records nearly ended it.
More than 500 former Rugby Union and Rugby League players can take their brain-injury claims against the sport’s governing bodies to trial, the High Court in London ruled on 21st August 2026.
Senior Master Jeremy Cook, the presiding judge, granted the players relief from sanctions in a written ruling in Hughes & Ors v World Rugby Ltd & Ors.
Their claims had been at risk of being struck out over failures to disclose medical records. Cook decided “with some hesitation” that the cases should proceed, subject to conditions to be set at a further hearing.
The ruling covers about half of a group action involving roughly 1,000 former players across both codes. Almost 500 cases had faced dismissal, including 153 Rugby League claims, the Rugby Football League said. The litigation began in 2022.
The claimants allege the governing bodies breached a duty of care by failing to protect them from concussive and sub-concussive blows. Their lawyers say the impacts caused early-onset dementia, Parkinson’s disease, epilepsy and motor neurone disease. The players are seeking compensation for lost earnings, medical bills and care costs.
Defendants include World Rugby, the Rugby Football Union and the Welsh Rugby Union in the 15-a-side code, and the Rugby Football League and the British Amateur Rugby League Association. Each denies wrongdoing and is defending the claims.
Disclosure failures blamed on former solicitors
Cook said the individual claimants were “blameless” for the disclosure failures, and attributed the breaches to their former solicitor, Rylands Garth, led by Richard Boardman, which has come off the record.
KP Law has taken over the claimant group. Cook said the court could “take comfort” from the change, adding that he could not have trusted future court orders to be met under the previous firm.
A spokesperson for KP Law said the firm was “pleased the court has allowed these important claims to proceed”.
Relief will be conditional on the claimants paying the defendants’ costs of enforcing the disclosure obligations, Cook ruled. The dispute over disclosure dates to court orders in 2024 and July 2025 required the players to release documents on their neurological testing, however, the players lost an appeal against the July 2025 order.
Lawyers for the governing bodies said several claimants had still not complied.
William Audland, King’s Counsel (KC) for the rugby league bodies, said the non-compliance was “systemic and without good reason”, while Susan Rodway, representative for the players, said the breaches were “neither serious nor significant” given the volume of documents in the case.
Rugby’s governing bodies deny liability
World Rugby filed its defence to the union claims earlier this year, denying liability. It argued that head and brain injury is a “foreseeable and inherent risk” of the sport that participants accept by playing. It denied that Rugby Union carries a likelihood of brain injury, and denied knowing of established science linking non-concussive head impacts to neurological injury.
Named claimants include England’s 2003 World Cup-winning hooker Steve Thompson, who has been diagnosed with early-onset dementia, former New Zealand prop Carl Hayman, ex-Wales flanker Alix Popham and former Wales captain Ryan Jones. Thompson has said the action aims to make the game safer rather than only to secure compensation.
The litigation is structured around a limited number of lead, or “bellwether”, cases expected to shape the wider group. Cook said the case could “greatly impact” how the sport is run at amateur and professional levels.
World Rugby has changed some safety rules since the claims emerged, lowering the legal tackle height in the amateur game and citing trials in France and South Africa. Rylands Garth had called for further reform, including an independent brain health ombudsman for the sport, before it left the case.
A further hearing will set the conditions attached to this ruling.
