{"id":196330,"date":"2025-10-07T23:45:07","date_gmt":"2025-10-07T23:45:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/196330\/"},"modified":"2025-10-07T23:45:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-07T23:45:07","slug":"rugby-australia-put-major-code-swap-roadblock-in-front-of-nrl-stars-nrl-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/196330\/","title":{"rendered":"Rugby Australia put major code swap roadblock in front of NRL stars – NRL News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rugby Australia<\/a> have joined Ireland<\/a>, New Zealand<\/a>, South Africa, England<\/a>, Scotland<\/a>, France<\/a> and Italy<\/a> in confirming any players who sign for the rebel R360 competition will not be allowed to play international games.<\/p>\n

The R360 competition will be backed by Saudi Arabian oil money and is promising to pay players richly from across rugby union and other sports.<\/p>\n

NRL<\/a> players have been in the firing line of the competition, with more than ten players reportedly being targeted. That list is led by the likes of Payne Haas<\/a>, Zac Lomax<\/a>, Cameron Munster<\/a> and Ryan Papenhuyzen<\/a>, who could all be paid well over $1 million per year.<\/p>\n

It was reported that Payne Haas<\/a> told the competition he would not entertain any deals less than $3 million per year, and that the competition would have no issue paying that.<\/p>\n

One of the lures for R360 though is that they were set to ensure all players were available for international games when and where they happened.<\/p>\n

That would include the Rugby World Cup, which is one of the biggest sporting tournaments in the world. Multiple NRL<\/a> players have expressed desire to play in the 15-man game for their international game.<\/p>\n

Mark Nawaqanitawase<\/a> and Carter Gordon<\/a>, who both switched to NRL<\/a> ahead of 2025, are both reportedly set to move back to rugby union for the 2027 World Cup to be held on home soil.<\/p>\n

But they won’t be able to play in the R360 competition if they do so, with the joint statement from the international rugby boards confirming they have major concerns around R360, were advising extreme caution for players joining the competition, and would not pick any of the players for international matches.<\/p>\n

“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 statement read<\/p>\n

“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.<\/p>\n

“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.<\/p>\n

“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.<\/p>\n

“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 statement continued.<\/p>\n

“International rugby and our major competitions remain the financial and cultural engine that sustains every level of the game \u2014 from grassroots participation to elite performance. Undermining that ecosystem could be enormously harmful to the health of our sport.<\/p>\n

“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.<\/p>\n

“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.”<\/p>\n

No NRL<\/a> players have officially signed intent to join the competition as yet.<\/p>\n

R360 is due to launch at the end of 2026, with any players off-contract at the end of 2026 free to join given their NRL<\/a> commitments would be over.<\/p>\n

The Australian Rugby League<\/a> Commission have indicated players making the switch – and particularly those breaking contract to do so – may be sanctioned by the NRL<\/a> though.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rugby Australia have joined Ireland, New Zealand, South Africa, England, Scotland, France and Italy in confirming any players…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":196331,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,760,85],"class_list":["post-196330","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-rugby","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/196330","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=196330"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/196330\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/196331"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=196330"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=196330"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=196330"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}