A Review of The Myners Review – Part I

On 14 May 2020, Premiership Rugby published the report of the independent review of the Premiership Rugby Salary Cap Regulations (the “Regulations”), conducted by Lord Myners. Publication of the report, commissioned by Premiership Rugby in December 2019, followed an open…

Matt Hankin v Saracens: Concussion, Causation and Clinical Negligence

For the second time this season, Saracens Rugby Club (“Saracens”) is defending legal proceedings. First it was for breaches of the Premiership Rugby Salary Cap Regulations in front of an independent disciplinary panel (discussed here); now it is in the High…

A detailed review of disciplinary proceedings at Rugby World Cup 2019 (Part 1)

The following article was co-authored by Kevin Carpenter and I, and published by LawInSport. It has been in the pipeline for some time, but we hope that it provides a comprehensive analysis of the disciplinary decisions of Rugby World Cup…

The Legal and Regulatory Difficulties of Re-Scheduling the Season (Part I)

The Coronavirus pandemic has brought sport to a stand-still globally. Many competitions have been postponed, and many have been cancelled altogether. Most elite professional rugby competitions have been postponed, including the English Premiership, the Pro14, the Champions Cup, the TOP14,…

Francis & Quill: World Cup Disciplinary Review

The disciplinary sanctions for foul play have been coming thick and fast at the 2019 Rugby World Cup. After Hodge, Lee-Lo and Matu’u were handed three-week bans for dangerous tackles (previously analysed here), it was hoped that players might take…

The Gabrillagues Ban: Grounds for Appeal?

On Tuesday 20 August, World Rugby announced that France second-row Paul Gabrillagues (the “Player”) had been handed a six-week suspension for foul play in the France vs Scotland match on Saturday 17 August. The player appeared before an independent World…

“Kicked to the Curb”: Players and Clubs unhappy over Yorkshire Carnegie decision

The financial troubles of Yorkshire Carnegie are now well-known. The Championship side announced in April 2019 that it was to go part-time in order to save costs after its principal investor pulled out, but it was revealed in June that…

World Rugby’s High Tackle Framework

I have published an updated version of this article, available here: World Rugby's High Tackle Framework - An Update for 2020. In May of this year, World Rugby published its new Decision-Making Framework for High Tackles. It is intended as…

Rugby’s Week from Hell

The past week might just have been the worst week of rugby news in history. Not ‘the worst’ because it has been dull – far from it – ‘the worst’ in the sense that almost all the news has been…