The former Wales second-row Derwyn Jones will make rugby history this week when he takes the Welsh Rugby Union (WRU) to court over an alleged breach of contract.

The 27-year-old Jones is making an application for a summary judgment in the High Court in Cardiff after losing his playing and development-officer contracts with the WRU last September.

The contracts were worth a total of £40,000 a year and were due to run until October next year. Jones and his solicitor, Rick McTaggart, have held talks with the WRU, but their differences will now be resolved in court.

Jones lost the contracts after being dropped first from the Wales team and then from the squad. The summary judgment application means he is seeking an instant decision from the judge. Jones, arguably, became the first player in the world to turn professional, in the sense of supporting himself solely by his rugby, when he resigned from the police force in June 1995, two months before the International Board abandoned amateurism. He supplemented his Cardiff playing "expenses" with his development officer's salary from the WRU.

"I was earning the same money, around £18,000 a year, but it meant I was able to devote all my time to rugby," said Jones. "When rugby went open, my combined income from Cardiff and the WRU meant I was earning £75,000 before bonuses.

"To lose £40,000 of that was a big blow. I have been very fortunate to be playing for Cardiff, the one club in Wales which can afford to operate a full-time squad, and they have been very good to me."

Neither Jones nor McTaggart was prepared to comment on the case in advance of Thursday, but their contention is believed to be that the union was in breach of both of Jones' contracts by ending them abruptly.

A clause in the playing contract stipulated that it would be void if he were left out of two successive national squads, but he lost it after being omitted from only one. The union has argued that it was within its rights in terminating the playing contract.