Thu, October 09, 2025
Top rugby unions warn players against breakaway R360 League
A growing number of leading rugby nations have announced that players who choose to participate in the proposed R360 league - a breakaway global competition aiming to attract the sport’s top talent - will be barred from international selection. The R360 project plans to launch with eight men's and four women's teams, competing in a condensed, Grand Prix-style global season.
England, Ireland, Scotland, France, Italy, New Zealand, Australia and South Africa have announced that players involved in R360 will become ineligible for international selection.
England is particularly against R360 as it believes that its Women’s World Cup-winning Red Roses squad is being targeted, and that R360 is leading female players away from a domestic set-up into which millions has been invested.
R360 is being spearheaded by former England captain Mike Tindall, and it is set to launch next year, however, now these countries have expressed that they are strictly against the venture, this seems uncertain. R360 also does not currently have World Rugby regulatory approval.
The world’s leading unions jointly stated:
“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.”
The statement also read: “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. 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.”
In response to this statement, R360 issued the following: “If players want to play for their country, they should have that opportunity…
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…
Why would the unions stand in their way? We look forward to submitting to the World Rugby council for sanctioning next summer as planned.”
R360 also responded to questions surrounding player welfare: “So many players love what R360 can do for them and the game. Player welfare is one of the key reasons for creating our global series, which will greatly reduce player load and capture the attention of a new generation of fans globally.”
