Rugby nations unite, announcing plans to ban players who join R360 rebel series

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — Eight of rugby’s most powerful nations have announced international bans for any players who join the breakaway R360 organization which intends to launch a multi-city series next year.

England, Ireland, Scotland, Italy, France, South Africa, New Zealand and Australia have written a joint letter in which they urge men’s and women’s players to think carefully before accepting offers from the R360 organization.

Representatives of the R360 reportedly have approached leading rugby union and rugby league players around the world in an effort to create a series which upends rugby’s existing global order.

R360’s organizers say they have agreements in place with 200 men’s players and approached leading players at the recent Women’s Rugby World Cup in England. Those players have been told that R360 has secured funding for three years and intends to launch next September.

“As a group of national rugby unions, we are urging extreme caution for players and support staff considering joining the proposed R360 competition,” the joint letter from the leading national rugby unions said.

“We all welcome new investment and innovation in rugby; and support ideas that can help the game evolve and reach new audiences; but any new competition must strengthen the sport as a whole, not fragment or weaken it.”

The signatories to the united letter, it said, “will therefore be advising men’s and women’s players that participation in R360 would make them ineligible for international selection.”

International rugby contests between the top-tier nations is considered the pinnacle of the 15-a-side game, including annual series in the northern and southern hemispheres, bilateral tours and the Rugby World Cups. That’s on top of provincial and top-flight professional club competitions and the global rugby sevens and Olympic sevens programs.

R360 has similarities with LIV Golf, which disrupted golf’s establishment when it was launched in 2022 and offered players large sums of money for a shorter season.

R360 is being fronted by former England rugby international Mike Tindall, who is married to Zara Phillips, a niece of England’s King Charles.

“R360 has given us no indication as to how it plans to manage player welfare; how players would fulfill their aspirations of representing their countries and how the competition would coexist with the international and domestic calendars so painstakingly negotiated in recent years for both our men’s and women’s games,” the joint letter said.

“The R360 model, as outlined publicly, rather appears designed to generate profits and return them to a very small elite, potentially hollowing out the investment that national unions and existing leagues make in community rugby, player development, and participation pathways.”

The top national unions said international rugby and the major competitions were the “financial and cultural engine that sustains every level of the game — from grassroots participation to elite performance.”

“Undermining that ecosystem could be enormously harmful to the health of our sport.”

The signatories to the letter said R360 had made no effort to contact them to discuss its proposal but the breakaway group says it has submitted 120 pages of documents to World Rugby, the sport’s international governing body.

In a statement issued later Tuesday, R360 said “our philosophy is that if players want to play for their country, they should have that opportunity. Why would the unions stand in their way?

“We look forward to submitting to the World Rugby Council for sanctioning next summer as planned. The series is designed with bespoke schedules for men’s and women’s teams and R360 will release all players for international matches, as written into their contracts.”

R360 said its series “which will greatly reduce player load and capture the attention of a new generation of fans globally.”

One of the signatories to the joint letter, New Zealand Rugby, said it was not aware of any of its leading players having been approached by R360.

The Wales rugby union did not sign the joint letter but said “we are considering changes we may need to make to qualification rules in Wales.”

“As we continue to analyze and understand the proposals, we reserve the right not to select men’s and women’s players for international duty if they participate in this competition.”

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