Bill Sweeney, the chief executive of the England Rugby Football Union admits it must “allay fears” about the safety of the game as the governing body prepares to receive a lawsuit from former players for negligence in failing to protect them from the risks of concussions, reports The Daily Telegraph.
Steve Thompson, England’s Rugby World Cup winning hooker and Michael Lipman are two of eight Test players who intend to launch a legal action against World Rugby, the RFU and the Welsh Rugby Union after revealing they have both been diagnosed with early onset dementia.
Sweeney said the RFU had yet to receive any formal legal approaches but were concerned about the “reputational risk” to the game as well as acknowledging the difficulties the respective families were going through.
“First and foremost in these legalistic times this is very much a human story,” said Sweeney.
“It's not a time to hide, not a time to go missing; it's really a time to be open and transparent.
“We've got to make sure we're making the necessary changes, to ensure we've got the safest possible game across all the different levels.
“And we do take player welfare extremely seriously, I want to reassure you of that. It features in every strategic document we produce.”
“It's a very serious matter, a very serious moment for us; we all love this game," said Sweeney.
"Our concern is it deeply upsetting to hear these stories about somebody like Steve Thompson who is an icon of the game, he's a World Cup-winner for us and you hear what he's going through and it's deeply upsetting to listen to that."
Sweeney said the reaction to the potential lawsuit and discussion over the safety of the game could act as a catalyst to “improve certain things we want to improve.”
“We do need to allay people’s fears and I think you do that by having a really balanced, fact-based conversation around what the issues are,” he added.
“We need the debate which is out there to be really factual and lay out all the detail. Then, as with so many things in life, there is a risk-reward balance that you make a decision on.
“We believe that everything is being done and will continue to be done to make sure it is a safe sport for kids to take up.
“We are dealing with the white-heat emotion at the moment of what is a really difficult human story that we are hearing about.
“It is not a time now to go quiet, it is the time now to engage and talk even more. We have got to be seen to have the best interests of the game and the best interests of the players of the game at heart here and that we are a caring sport and taking all the precautions we can.”
The NFL in America reached a $765 million settlement with former players suffering from Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) in 2013 but Sweeney said there was no risk that if any lawsuit was successful it could jeopardise the financial status of the RFU.
There are significant differences between the NFL and rugby union’s handling of concussion, with the latter the first sport to introduce head injury assessments along with graduated return to play protocols back in 2012.
Sweeney also insisted there was “no scientific proof of the causal link between concussion and CTE, that is not a proven thing, and research is ongoing into that and more research will probably be done into that.”
[link url="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/rugby-union/2020/12/11/rfu-chief-executive-bill-sweeney-admits-rugby-needs-allay-fears/?"]Full Daily Telegraph report (Subscription Required)[/link]
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