If you are a member of a regular rugby club then you almost certainly have insurance coverage from your home union, such as , The RFU, but if you are traveling abroad to play rugby then this coverage has serious limitations.
Rugby travel insurance is generally recommended as the standard governing body insurance policies do not cover certain items that most people would want to be should a serious injury, or situation occur.
Some of the things that require greater coverage that we will go through in this article are: medical expenses abroad, emergency repatriation, loss of passports, cancellation, or curtailment, personal baggage and money, and personal accident.
Let’s take a look at these in turn and see how they would impact on your decision to purchase travel insurance for rugby or not.
Medical Expenses
When traveling outside your home country you may well be in a country that is going to charge a high price for hospital treatment, in fact they may even refuse to treat you if you cannot prove you have sufficient insurance coverage.
Imagine that, being sat in a hospital emergency waiting area with a collar bone hanging out and the hospital refusing to do anything for you because you either had no insurance, or your insurance did not cover this country.
Check out: UK Rugby Insurance Policies Compared
Income Protection
No governing body insurance scheme that you use in your home country covers you for loss of income, let alone for when you travel abroad. However, if you look around the various sports insurances available then you can get coverage for loss of income combined into your travel package.
This is highly advisable as one of the most overlooked negative impacts of suffering a serious injury in life comes from not being able to continue working. Without working it is unlikely your employer is going to keep paying you for long, and you might not get any pay if you are a contractor.
How would you feel if you were not able to make mortgage payments, or car payments and keep your family in the manner that they are used to just because you damaged a shoulder on a wild few days away at the Dubai &s tournament?
Loss Of Passports
If your rugby tour is like any of the ones I have been on, there is more than likely going to be a fair bit of chaos with dozens of rugby players moving from hotel to bus to hotel and so on, throw in some fines sessions and bad hangovers, and you have a recipe for a lost passport.
There is never a good time to travel abroad but at least if you are insured for it then you are not going to feel like quite such a chump but it won’t help the hangover.
You might want to read: Do rugby players in the UK have insurance?
Emergency Repatriation
This covers the costs of getting you back to your home country should an illness or accident you suffer abroad affect your return travel plans. A standard travel insurance is not going to cover you for this if you suffer an injury playing rugby, it usually has to be specified in the policy and paid extra for.
Let’s say you suffer a broken leg playing rugby abroad and can no longer follow the original tour travel plans that you have probably already paid for.
Without insurance you would find yourself considerably out of pocket having to pay to get yourself home and you will of course lose the money you period for your original travel tickets.
A specific insurance for rugby travel will cover you in this situation and the insurance providers may even make the travel arrangements for you and pay the bill.
Should the worst happen and you suffer a catastrophic injury and need air lifting to hospital, or even directly back to your homeland then this is when this part of the policy becomes extremely valuable. Read the fine print on the insurance policy to check to what extent you are covered for this eventuality.
I have heard of occasions when players were refused treatment for serious injuries on the grounds that they could not provide an insurance document covering their injuries, or find a credit card with a large enough amount available on it, so you’ve been warned.
Typically, though, if you were playing in a well organised even sanctioned by the governing body of that country you were travelling to then there will be a certain amount of medical assitance on hand and at the very least a route to get you to the most appropriate local hospital to get your treatment started.
Always check if the event you are playing in is sanctioned. It makes a difference to both the validity of your insurance policy and also the quality of the medical care (and refereeing) you are likely to be receiving.
Also check out: Do you need insurance for rugby
Cancellation
Sadly these days with Covid 19 and all the precautions surrounding this, then the chances of a tournament, or match being canceled have greatly risen. Rugby/sport specific travel insurance policies can cover you for this and cover, or recover a certain amount of the expenses incurred.
If you were traveling on a standard, basic travel insurance for regular tourists then this would not be the case.
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Should You Take Out Rugby Specific Travel Insurance?
Rugby players who need to make mortgage payments, car payments and take care of their families’ needs should make sure they are covered for loss of earnings. They should also ensure their medical costs will be covered if they are playing in a country with a privatized health system.
Please be aware that some countries have a healthcare system which whilst you may be able to access for free at the time of need, may be significantly inferior to the expertise you have access to at home. In which case the only option is to pay for private medical care which may be much more expensive.
For these reasons I would always make sure I had a solid level of cover when I played rugby abroad.
A word of warning though, you absolutely need to read through the small print of the policies that you are considering taking out and make an effort to understand them.
You might find travel insurance policies suitable for rugby in the sections of websites labeled as ‘sports insurance’, ‘hazardous activity insurance’, or even as an ‘extreme sport insurance’.
Within these policies you then have to check out which regions are covered. Oftentimes, America is listed in a different zone which unfortunately costs more, obviously due to the higher medical costs associated with that country.
So, research is the name of the game really, take notes when you are going through the policy wordings and compare policies based on what is important for you.
You might want to read: Do rugby players in the US have insurance?
Image Credits
New South Wales Ambulance 636 responding to a job through Sydney’s South Helitak430, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
