R360 rebel rugby league delays launch to 2028 after player threats

Mike Tindall, R360’s co-founder and sporting director, during the Classic Wallabies v British & Irish Legends match in July. Photo / Getty Images

The scheduled launch of rugby’s proposed rebel R360 competition targeting the game’s top stars has been pushed back by two years to 2028, organisers have announced.

R360 chiefs said the new timescale would offer a number of benefits including “stronger market conditions, greater commercial certainty, and a significantly more favourable environment for players”.

“The decision to shift our launch to 2028 is a strategic decision based on timing,” said R360 board member and former England centre Mike Tindall.

“Launching under compressed timelines would not meet the standards we set for R360, nor would it deliver the long-term commercial impact that the sport deserves.”

Eight leading Test nations last month issued a joint statement saying players who joined the R360 project – a 15-a-side rugby union competition – would be ineligible for national team selection.

And Australian rugby league’s NRL said any player who joined the breakaway league would be banned for 10 years.

The British and Irish Lions this week said any player who signed up would not be picked for the 2027 women’s tour to New Zealand.

The R360 competition has backing from private investors and 2003 Rugby World Cup winner Tindall is the public face of the project, which is shrouded in secrecy.

Reports say it would involve six to eight men’s teams and four women’s teams in a franchise league.

But there are concerns among rugby chiefs about where the competition would fit into an already packed calendar.

The new date for the planned launch would avoid the men’s Rugby World Cup in 2027 and the landmark first women’s Lions tour.

But the inaugural Club World Cup is also planned for 2028.

Tindall said the aim of R360 was to create a “global showcase league” to boost rugby’s appeal.

He said many of the world’s best players, both men and women, continued to express strong interest in joining the breakaway competition.

The R360 statement on Friday also included a section addressing what it called “misinformation” about the proposed competition.

“There has been much misinformation briefed out about the league,” it said.

“Rather than rigorously address this on a case-by-case, R360 has kept its counsel to minimise the resultant impact on players and rugby stakeholders, while readying an exciting launch that would unveil the full proposition, involving more than 200 leading players in the game.

“After players were threatened with the punishment of no longer representing their country or being banned from returning to the NRL, only a handful of players from around the world withdrew from the project.

“In the same period, R360 added a further dozen Test match players to its ranks.”

R360 had been hoping to gain approval from the sport’s global governing body, World Rugby, at its council meeting next year.