Four years after the Guardian first reported that a group of eight former union players, including the World Cup winner Steve Thompson, had been diagnosed with neurological problems which they claimed were caused by their playing careers, the presiding judge, senior master of the king’s bench division Jeremy Cook has set out a roadmap for the landmark case.
In a statement, Rylands Garth described it as “an excellent week in court for the claimants in both the rugby league and union cases” and criticised the “continuous efforts by the defendants to stall and delay their progress”.
Susan Rodway KC, acting for Rylands Garth, argued that the defendants had turned disclosure into “a sisyphean task in which we keep pushing this stone up the hill only to be met by a barrage of defendants who keep pushing it back down” in an attempt to draw out the case.
Cook also stressed that it is incumbent upon the claimants to establish not just that the defendants were negligent in their handling of the players, but also to substantiate what the defendants could have done differently.
Cook duly refused the defendants argument that they should have the right to have the claimants examined by their own independent neurological experts before selecting test cases, saying that he could see “no reason” why it was necessary.
