Playing it safe on and off the pitch

With sports injuries increasingly leading to claims, it is important that match reports, score cards and team sheets are filled out correctly and filed

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