The move is historic.
At least for France.
According to L'Équipe, which revealed the information, a group of about fifteen players will file administrative appeals for failure to fulfill their security and information obligations on the part of the French Rugby Federation (FFR) and the National Rugby League (NRL).
All these players have in common to have been victims of repeated shocks to the head while playing in France.
This is the first time that the FFR and the LNR have been attacked in this way, two years after the international federation (World Rugby) and the English and Welsh federations were targeted by complaints filed by a hundred players.
Two French among the complainants
The French movement is carried by the law firm Alekto.
Among these fifteen plaintiffs, we find a large majority of foreign players, the Welshman Alix Popham and the English Steve Thompson passed by Brive, the former New Zealand pillar of Toulon Carl Hayman, the second-line Canadian Jamie Cudmore (Clermont ).
The only two French people who have stepped up to the plate are Quentin Garcia, former hooker for Chambéry, and Sarah Chlagou, the former second-line of Stade Rennais.
The plaintiffs are asking for drastic preventive measures and a reduction in head impacts, whether in matches or training.
To date, the minimum rest period is six days according to the recommendations of a group of experts (Concussion In Sport Group).
The plaintiffs wish to extend it to three weeks.
In France, during matches, there is a concussion protocol which has made it possible to reduce the number of players who remained on the pitch after a head shock from 30% to 10%.
"Almost all of our clients were put back on the field, during French championship matches or training, when they shouldn't have been," according to Nino Arnaud, one of the plaintiffs' lawyers.
Suffering from dementia, Alix Popham or Carl Hayman have received more than a hundred harmful blows to the head during their careers, according to experts from the UK Dementia Institute.