The Times revealed in November last year that plans were afoot for the launch of a new global franchise series featuring eight men’s teams and a women’s competition, with the aim of attracting the best players in the world. Each round of the season would be played in a different city, with the rugby fixtures supplemented by concerts and fan engagement to create a festival-style event.
The competition is scheduled to start on October 2 next year, initially with a reduced 12-week calendar. The top 40 players are being promised at least $1million (about £750,000) a year each, and their contracts with R360 would permit them to play international rugby.
To players it has been quite simple: the opportunity to earn more money for playing less rugby, but of a higher standard. Citing the financial challenges faced by club rugby and the sport’s tendency to evolve at a slow and conservative pace, R360 has positioned itself as an opportunity to modernise rugby by driving fresh investment and taking the game to new audiences.
R360 sources have said that signing star players “would be removing from some clubs easily their biggest expenses, and as a by-product we might make clubs around the world profitable”.
When would it be played?
R360 agrees with South Africa that the Rugby Championship should be moved into the Six Nations window, creating a global international calendar. This would aid R360 in staging its competition either side of the July Test window.
South Africa won the Rugby Championship at Twickenham this month, and would be in favour of moving that competition in line with the Six Nations, which would in turn free up space in the calendar for R360
PAUL CHILDS/REUTERS
Who will watch it?
Traditional club rugby supporters are not the target audience. R360 believes it can attract big-event fans and casual rugby supporters, who could be captured by the new competition and the razzmatazz of attending a rugby festival weekend, similar to when the NFL comes to London, but priced at about £50 for the weekend, including the concert.
The NFL’s London games are a huge success for the league, and R360 wants to create a similar atmosphere at their events
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What is World Rugby’s view?
The governing body will be asked to sanction R360 at a council meeting in June. Eight major unions — England, Scotland, Ireland, France, Italy, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa — will ban any player who signs for R360 from representing their country.
The RFU’s position has long been that England men’s players must be in the Gallagher Prem. To protect its investment in the professional game, the RFU has now extended that policy to cover the Red Roses and Professional Women’s Rugby.
The unprecedented joint statement said that R360 would be “enormously harmful to the health of our sport” because it would undermine existing structures and “hollow out investment in community rugby”.
A senior club executive in England called R360 “pie in the sky”. Another senior executive said the R360 plans “looked like they had been written by ChatGPT”. Peter V’landys, the chairman of the Australian Rugby League commission, called R360 a “competition out of a Corn Flakes box”.
International Rugby Players, the player lobby group, has advised against stars signing for R360.
Do the players want R360?
It is understood that at least 160 men’s players had signed a pre-contract agreement, half of whom had played a Tier One Test match in the previous 12-18 months. One source said: “R360 does not want to be like Major League Rugby where Matt Giteau is playing at 40. People aren’t going to watch that.”
The Red Roses are understood to have signed pre-contract agreements before they won the World Cup. Four of the highest-profile Springboks are said to have signed up. Louis Rees-Zammit was linked heavily with R360 when he returned from the NFL on a one-year deal with Bristol Bears. Rugby league stars from the NRL in Australia have signed up.
Smith, the England fly half, recently committed his future to Northampton amid interest from R360
TIMES PHOTOGRAPHER MARC ASPLAND
Fin Smith, the England fly half, considered R360 before re-signing for Northampton Saints. Len Ikitau, the Australia centre, was not prepared to give up playing in a home World Cup in 2027.
But Argentina, Wales, Japan, Fiji, Samoa and Tonga are among the nations who did not sign the statement, so their players remain frontline targets, along with senior internationals who are nearing the end of their careers and may otherwise head to Japan or France for one last big payday. Henry Slade is in that category, as the England centre is out of contract with Exeter Chiefs and is waiting to see what his options are.
What does R360 say?
Mike Tindall, England’s World Cup winner, is one of the leading figures behind R360, along with Stuart Hooper, the former Bath director of rugby, and Mark Spoors, formerly the head of rugby at Wasserman, the American media company.
Tindall has made a few disparaging comments about Prem Rugby on his own podcast, but otherwise there has been no formal comment from anyone at R360 on the competition or the claims made by the unions.
Tindall, a member of the panel on the podcast “The Good, the Bad and the Rugby”, is one of the leading figures behind R360
CHRIS JACKSON/GETTY IMAGES
Do the numbers add up?
This is the biggest question of all — and it is impossible to say because R360 has not confirmed any details.
It is understood that interest in the eight men’s franchises was oversubscribed and the teams have been sold, with some investors holding interests in other professional sports, including Formula 1 and the Premier League.
R360 says that it has secured funding to cover the first three years, after which point it claims the league will be self-sufficient. 885 Capital, a UAE investment company that backs the Baller League — six-a-side football for former players, celebrities and influencers — is a seed investor for R360.
The Baller League pits celebrities, ex-pros and influencers against each other in six-a-side football, and is often broadcast on Sky Sports
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A broadcast deal is said to have been done with YouTube that would ensure free-to-air coverage, potentially with a view to selling rights once the competition has built momentum.
R360 sources point to the low capital costs of the venture. All teams would gather at one site for a pre-season camp and then travel to host cities, where a stadium and training venues would be rented. The size of the travelling circus could potentially be as big as 1,000.
What other issues are yet to be publicly addressed?
R360 would need an anti-doping and anti-corruption plan, which will be harder to put in place if the competition is not sanctioned by World Rugby. From where do they find referees, given the major unions are set to make their match officials unavailable?
It is understood that R360 does have a funding plan that could lead to money trickling down the pyramid and might assuage some union concerns — but no details have been made public.
There is also no available information on governance structures, ownership models, the player draft, disciplinary sanctions, their adherence to the laws of rugby, match locations, player welfare standards or insurance policies. R360 says that it has all the information and it will be made public when the time is right.