Professional rugby branded Sam Peters a pariah. It was he who spearheaded the Mail on Sunday’s concussion campaign against the sport’s ruling bodies in 2013. And a decade later – at the end of the Rugby World Cup 2023 – the shadow of a mass lawsuit concerning concussions continues to hang over World Rugby.
As a reporter, Peters interviewed former players whose lives had been irrevocably altered by concussions and other injuries, which were aggravated or outright caused by lax rules, regulations and attitudes encouraged from the top down. The RFU and other prominent organisations in the sport shot down any attempt to question the status quo – rather bullishly, it seems.
