Several Wallabies stars have been offered big money by organisers of a new global rugby breakaway league, which is pitched being as a formula one-style roadshow and counts royal son-in-law and former England Test star Mike Tindall as a co-founder.
But under the reported plans for the eight-team franchise competition, which is branded “R360” and hopes to launch next year, Australian players may have to give up playing for the Wallabies to join the breakaway ranks.
After plans for new competition first emerged in November last year, reports in English newspapers on Tuesday added more detail to a concept that is being sold as rugby’s revolutionary equivalent to the Indian Premier League in cricket.
According to the Telegraph and the Times, R360 would involve eight men’s teams and four women’s teams competing as franchises under a “grand prix” model that would see the competition move between major global cities for 16 rounds, along the same lines as formula one. The games would be played over a weekend at stadiums like the Nou Camp in Barcelona and Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, and involve live sites and music concerts as well.
Team owners from other sports, like the NFL and motor racing’s formula one, are reportedly interested in owning franchises.
The London-based organisers of R360 reportedly includes Tindall, the former World Cup winner who is married to Zara Phillips, the daughter of Princess Anne; former Bath rugby coach Stuart Hooper and John Loffhagen, a lawyer who helped launch LIV Golf.
Zara Tindall and Mike Tindall at home in Gloucestershire.Credit: Hugh Burnard
The organisers have engaged with World Rugby – who would have to sanction the league – and Rugby Australia chief executive Phil Waugh is one of several national bosses who has met the R360 organisers.
Just how the breakaway league will secure the hundreds of millions of dollars in funding required is still unclear, but the vast riches of the Public Investment Fund, the Saudi sovereign wealth fun which bankrolls LIV Golf, is not involved, according to informed sources.
It would not be a cheap exercise. The breakaway league is targeting the world’s highest-profile stars on the promise of salaries of up $2 million a year, and has reportedly signed heads of agreement with “dozens of players”, which would kick in if R360 secures sufficient investment by September. Star English players and members of the British and Irish Lions tour squad are reportedly among them.
Current Wallabies players have also been approached in the first half of this year, according to informed sources who were not authorised to comment publicly.
High-profile England and Lions stars like Maro Itoje are targets for “R360”.Credit: Getty Images
With contracts expiring this year, several high-profile Australian players were made offers to sign with R360 for substantial sums, but on contracts that would only take effect if the competition had enough funding to launched next year. With the 2027 Rugby World Cup on the horizon, the Australian players did not accept.
Several factors could stand in the way of the competition signing Wallabies and All Blacks. New Zealand Rugby and Rugby Australia (with exceptions) currently both have strict selection policies requiring players to play in Super Rugby to play Test rugby. England also have a similar policy.
And the proposed dates for the competition will also be problematic, by reportedly running between April and June, with a break for the July internationals, and then continuing in August and September.
Though the competition is reportedly keen to not disrupt international rugby – and will begin after the Six Nations – the last two months would clash with the Rugby Championship.
Barcelona’s Camp Nou has also been mooted as a venue for “R360”.Credit: AP
Informed sources said R360 have indicated they will abide by regulation 9, but the TRC window lasts six weeks, meaning a potentially major disruption to the league. Sources say players could ultimately be faced with a club or country choice, which is not an issue faced by star cricketers and the 10-week IPL window.
The concept of revolutionary breakaway leagues are not new in rugby. In 2021, Eddie Jones and Steve Hansen were among the backers of a 12-a-side competition, but it did not get off the ground.
While many in world rugby are keeping an open mind on the bold plans of R360 – and are even supportive of the need for a game-changing idea – the big question for most is whether the organisers can get over the classic conundrum they face: getting enough star players to commit to secure sufficient investment, and vice-versa.
In a brochure sent to investors published by the UK Telegraph, Tindall wrote: “Rugby is feeling the fallout of the last few years with financial mismanagement, declining investment in the club game and a product that is struggling to evolve.
“Clubs around the world are feeling the strain and are being propped up by the international game. Rugby’s lack of innovation and ability to change risks losing its appeal to new audiences and its younger market.”
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