With the Rugby World Cup drawing to a close, Chris Baker finds lawyers packing in briefs such as dealing with forged merchandise, competition rules, on-field discipline, and a host of other issues

An ability to tackle your opponents hard, break through their defence and convert your opportunities is valued by lawyers and rugby players alike.

And, since the game went professional in 1995, lawyers have found links between the rugby pitch and the legal field, while enjoying the occasional scrum themselves.

As the World Cup reaches the final in Australia this week, there is much to be done.

The Rugby Football Union's (RFU) in-house lawyer, Jonathan Hall, had to review the agreement sent out to all the unions by tournament organisers Rugby World Cup Ltd before the RFU could sign up to it.

'The agreement goes into immense detail about the number of players, where they can stay, transportation, discipline, and the competition rules and regulations,' he says.

'I was involved in reviewing the agreement and raising any queries that may arise.'

The review involved close liaison with various RFU departments and unions in other countries.

It started at the beginning of the year, running until all the unions signed up in the early summer.

The only other legal issue for England in the tournament so far was the matter of the team getting fined 10,000 for briefly fielding 16 players during the match with Samoa.

A barrister who had gone out with the team dealt with that.

'We may not actually have sent someone but he offered to do so and is known to us and chairs our disciplinary tribunal,' Mr Hall says.

The move left the in-house team freer to deal with domestic issues unrelated to the tournament, he adds.

One of these is forged merchandise.

'Because of the interest generated by the World Cup, we do find a lot of counterfeiting,' Mr Hall says.

'That involves me dealing very closely with the commercial department and doing whatever it takes to clamp down on it.'

Back in England and Wales, the rugby world raises several legal issues: player/club interfaces, links with the unions, ownership and personal injury concerns.

Several firms in England and Wales have developed specialism in these areas.

One that has been involved since the game went professional is south-west law firm Clarke Willmott.

At that time, Saracens captain and England scrum-half Kyran Bracken was on a trainee contract with the firm until his rugby commitments took over.

David Powell, a former Bristol RFC player, joined Clarke Willmott in 1999 with an impressive rugby portfolio and also inherited Mr Bracken's work.

Mr Powell was appointed to the board of the Professional Rugby Players Association in 1998 and has negotiated contracts on behalf of the England and the British Lions teams.

'[Mr Bracken's] group put together the circumstances where all the England players were offered representation,' Mr Powell says.

'It was new at the time but it's now quite common and known as a "Super 12".

We represented all the England squad and other top players.

We were also involved in the historical discussions with the RFU and the clubs.'

The firm has also just acted for the new owner of Bristol RFC, Malcolm Pearce, on a pro bono basis.

It is all a far cry from his days as an amateur player for Bristol.

'I played for six or seven years and I never went into the committee bar,' he recalls.

'It's a good example of how, in those days, players were players and the committee ran things.'

As in other team sports, the power of the individual players is rising fast, riding on the back of glamorous figures such as England's Jonny Wilkinson.

His solicitor is Simon Cohen of Manchester-based James Chapman & Co.

'There's a lot of individual representation in a quasi-agent type of way,' he explains.

'I'm chairman of the Association of Rugby Agents, so I look at contracts and negotiate with clubs on transfers of players and new players.'

The firm acts for around 85 Rugby Union and League players, also including England stars Matt Dawson and Mike Catt, and leading Welsh player Gareth Thomas - as well as New Zealand's coach, John Mitchell.

James Chapman is heavily involved in all aspects of agency work.

Acting as lawyers for several agents, the firm was responsible for the co-ordination of many of the clauses in the Leicester RFC contract with all of its international players.

As well as being a preferred legal adviser for the Professional Rugby Players Association, the firm is also on the association's list of approved agents - for example, it represents England captain Martin Johnson both as his lawyers and as his commercial agent, securing sponsorships and so on.

Partner Jason Smith says: 'Rugby's still a long way behind football in terms of money, but its profile is increasing.

Sponsors are always looking for a synergy and someone who appeals to the general public.'

It is unsurprising that south Wales is home to many rugby-mad solicitors, which is just as well given the amount of legal activity going on there.

The Welsh Rugby Union (WRU) wants to make inroads into provincial rugby.

This would involve creating four or five regional clubs to compete in European matches - supposedly to protect the smaller teams - and a Celtic League with Scotland and Ireland.

'There are issues about squeezing eight teams into five,' says Chris Nott, a partner at Cardiff firm Palser Grossman and a director of Cardiff Rugby Club.

'It will also involve some rebranding.'

Teams are taking legal advice over fears that funding will be cut.

'The lawyers have their noses in the trough on this issue, as well as the constant issues arising around individual players,' Mr Nott, who is also a former referee, adds.

'Cardiff is in dispute with Swansea over a player who has transferred and now the teams have got to negotiate new contracts with the regions.'

The work is concentrated around a 'couple of firms', according to Mr Nott - who proudly adds that Palser Grossman is the only one with a club director working for it.

Welsh regional rugby is changing, and that creates work for the lawyers.

'When you've got something that's in a state of flux, that creates work in its own right,' Mr Nott says.

'The rumour is that of the five regional teams, only three are going to survive - there's not a lot of money knocking around but there's a lot of mouths to feed.'

Another development in Welsh rugby that many thought would resonate across the entire game was the Court of Appeal ruling earlier this year in Vowles v Evans and Another [2003] EWCA Civ 318.

Richard Vowles was a player who broke his neck in a collapsed scrum the court ruled should not have gone ahead according to the rules of the game, so the WRU and referee were held liable for the injury.

Mark Harvey, a personal injury partner at Cardiff firm Hugh James and a keen touch rugby player in his lunch breaks, says the case did not lead to the avalanche of claims some in the sports world feared.

'And referees are insured - so their houses are not at risk, as was rather emotionally reported,' he says.

'Injuries do take place and there has been a small increase [in claims] over the last few years, but this did not open the floodgates.'

Of his lunch-time tournaments, he says: 'There is a small group of former Wales internationals and British Lions internationals.

I try to hide near the touchline in the hope that a Wales international will pass the ball to a British international who will pass it to me so I can score an easy and safe try.'

But Terry Vaux, a partner at Newport firm Hodsons Parsons James & Vaux, maintains that the Vowles case has brought change.

As chairman of the WRU's referees committee, he has overseen the implementation of a national referee foundation course for Wales, aimed at reducing the risk of injury to players caused by ignorance of the rules.

The scheme's effectiveness is reflected in the 'reasonable' premiums offered by insurance companies, he says.

Mr Vaux played himself, 'in the dim and distant past'.

He says: 'Since the game became professional, or was opened up, it has maintained a lot of top-class, professional players.

The players are much fitter, the game is much faster and the knocks are much harder than when I used to play.'

There are plenty of other lawyers involved in the game itself.

For example, Rollingsons partner Kathryn Hennessy plays for Blackheath WRFC and Richard Hart, a partner at Manchester-based Jack Thornley & Partners, is proud of his record as fly-half in the Ormskirk fourth team.

To extend the links, England lock Ben Kay's f ather is Lord Justice Kay.

The most famous of all, however, is Brian Moore, former England hooker of fierce repute and now a partner at London firm Memery Crystal.

He says: 'I'm doing commercial litigation - I don't call it sports law.

People say I am a sports lawyer but that doesn't mean anything - it's a normal area of the law involving an element of sport.

Commercial litigation with sports clients is a better estimation of it.

I have clients in broadcasting, clients in boxing, clients in football and in rugby as well.

'I think [the World Cup] is really great so far and it's going to get better as the big matches are coming up.

I still fancy England and always have done.

I wish I could be out there watching.

I can't play anymore, but I did have three World Cups.'

But, even though the union game has been professional for nearly a decade, the big money seen in other sports has yet to emerge.

One partner dealing with sports law, who did not wish to be named, warns: 'In terms of making money out of legal work, [rugby] is not exactly the number one choice.

There is not enough money in the market to justify huge fees.'

Perhaps, in that case, lawyers should stick to playing rugby on the field rather than in the office for the time being.

Chris baker is a freelance journalist