World rugby’s reaction to R360 breakaway comp

The unions of New Zealand, Australia, South Africa, Ireland, England, Scotland, France and Italy have released a statement slamming proposed breakaway league R360

The statement reads: "As a group of national rugby unions, we are urging extreme caution for players and support staff considering joining the proposed R360 competition.

"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.

"Among our roles as national unions, we must take a wider view on new propositions and assess their impact on a range of areas, including whether they add to rugby’s global ecosystem, for which we are all responsible, or whether they are a net negative to the game.

"R360 has given us no indication as to how it plans to manage player welfare; how players would fulfil 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 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.

"International rugby and our major competitions remain 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.

"These are all issues that would have been much better discussed collaboratively, but those behind the proposed competition have not engaged with or met all unions to explain and better understand their business and operating model.

"Each of the national unions will therefore be advising men’s and women’s players that participation in R360 would make them ineligible for international selection."

I'd have no interest whatsoever in that competition.

The harm it would cause is the biggest concern

We would lose the likes of Sacha etc as the money would be too attractive for them to ignore

It’s a huge concern.

Hopefully it will fall flat on its face and no-one will sign up to it.

They kept saying Fin Smith had signed up for it but he’s just signed a multi year deal with us so that was a bit of an untruth.

I keep seeing that Rees-Zammit has signed. He only signed up for a year with Bristol so that might be true.

Reinach gave an interview and said none of the Springboks were interested in signing, so you guys seem to have nothing to worry about.

Rees - Zammit is about as loyal as Moffie is a Bok supporter so he can go play in that comp on his own

It looks like R360 has grabbed the interest of rugby league players in Australia, with many choosing not to renew their contracts as they gear up for its launch next year.