Playing it safe on and off the pitch

When rugby players are injured during a game it is becoming increasingly common for them to call a lawyer.

The most serious accidents tend to occur in amateur games where, as far as the law is concerned, the same standards apply as in professional rugby.

Smolden v Whitworth & Nolan (1997) established that a referee has a duty of care in an adult game to protect the safety of the players. This was later reinforced in Vowles v Evans (2003).

In Allport v Wilbraham (2003), Allport was catastrophically injured and pursued a claim against the referee, alleging that he did not call the scrum in the correct sequence of 'crouch, pause, engage'. The case was unique as it was not a collapsed scrum that caused the injury, simply a mistimed engagement. If successful, it could have had a considerable impact on the management of scrums.

However, the judge found in favour of the referee. In making the decision the contemporaneous documents were of crucial importance, including the score cards assessing the referee's ability to manage the game and, in particular, the scrum. The referee had been given a score of B for scrum management by the captain of the home team who later gave evidence that this part of the referee's game was particularly poor.

As sporting claims tend to be marred by a conflict of evidence, there should be systems in place to ensure match reports, score cards and team sheets are retained. These documents can be crucial when trying to decide what happened years after the event.

In addition to the referee, there is scope for claims against the team captain and coach. It is, therefore, important to check if they are covered and state what their role is when assessing players' suitability for a particular position.