Insurance

The Irish Rugby Football Union is acutely aware of the ongoing challenges faced by our Affiliated Clubs with respect to insurance. The increasing costs and the limited terms of cover offered continue to motivate the Union to offer solutions for our clubs and players. The Union has negotiated a number of separate insurance facilities with its insurance partners for its Affiliated Clubs which provide the requisite level of protection at affordable rates. These are summarised as follows:

(1) “Catastrophic injury” Personal Accident cover (Compulsory for all Affiliated Clubs)

The Union arranges Group Personal Accident cover for all players and certain officials who are members of affiliated clubs.

The Union believes it has a responsibility to provide a minimum level of insurance cover and therefore the scheme is compulsory for all Clubs. The Compulsory Group scheme is intended to primarily address catastrophic injuries only.

For full details of cover, benefits, extensions and limitations please refer to the appropriate link below.

Whilst the benefits may appear substantial, it will not necessarily be sufficient to cover future needs if a player is severely injured. Players should understand acknowledge and accept that there are risks of injury (including serious injury) and death in the course of playing and training for rugby similar to most sports, and the player voluntarily accepts such risk. Players should be aware that the Compulsory Group Personal Accident scheme does not provide payment of medical expenses or loss of earnings, nor does it cover “fatal collapse” unless a physical accident precedes same whilst training or playing a match.

(2) Personal Accident Top-Up cover for individual Clubs & Players (Optional)

Optional additional personal accident covers are available for both Clubs and individual members within the Club.

For full details of cover, benefits, extensions, and limitations please refer to the appropriate link below.

The Union strongly recommends that Clubs and individual players are aware and avail of these as this Top Up cover can include cover for medical expenses and a contribution to loss of wages .

Whilst the Union and the Clubs can arrange substantial insurance benefit within their limited financial means, it still ultimately remains the individual player’s responsibility to ensure that he/she has adequate insurance cover.

(3) Combined Public Liability and Directors & Officers Insurance

Public Liability insurance cover is intended to protect the Club against any legal actions taken against it, arising from any allegations of negligence causing personal injury/illness in the course of its activities as a sporting club. The policy is intended to provide a defence for any such legal actions and to pay any awards where negligence against the Club has been established.

Most public liability policies exclude cover in respect of claims arising from all rugby participation. This means legal actions taken against a club arising from alleged on field injuries would not be covered by the public liability insurance.

The Union has negotiated a partial solution for Clubs on this issue with its insurance partners Aviva & Aon. This facility in addition to providing cover in respect of its usual insurance needs, such as property assets, money, business interruption will also offer cover for Directors & Officers Liability, and Liability insurance including liabilities arising from all rugby related activities on and off the field. The Liability insurance exposure in respect of “Rugby related activities on the field” is only available under this facility which the Union has negotiated on behalf of affiliated Clubs..

We would encourage you to check your existing Public Liability cover with your Insurer/Broker and establish if an on-field participation exclusion has been imposed on your Public Liability insurance policy wording. If such an exclusion has been imposed, we strongly encourage you to raise the issue with your Insurer/Insurance provider to see if this cover can be included.

If this is not possible, we would encourage you to ask your Broker to contact Aon Gareth.dixon@aon.ie who will work with your broker to address the issues.

For full details of cover, benefits, extensions, and limitations please refer to the appropriate link below.