This week Rugby Inc mobilised, issuing as strong a statement as they could. The proposed breakaway league R360, a consortium fronted by World Cup-winning former England player Mike Tindall, had pinched a nerve.
The group of allied unions were unambiguous. They would ban players from international representation if they signed for the rebel R360 competition, which is due to begin next year.
They also expressed concerns about the annual rugby calendar and the not-insignificant matter of “hollowing out the investment that national unions and existing leagues make”.
The statement was signed by the IRFU and the national rugby unions of New Zealand, Australia, South Africa, England, Scotland, France and Italy. Its tone was understated fury.
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The view is that R360 is an existential threat to the current rugby ecosystem and will fragment the sport, not strengthen it. What would have further distressed the unions is that it couldn’t have come at a worse time.
Welsh rugby is in the doldrums and undergoing a period of significant decline characterised by financial instability and a struggling national team.
In England, unsustainable business models leading to massive losses caused three clubs – London Irish, Wasps and Worcester – to fold in recent years.
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If reports are accurate, the R360 enterprise has agreements in place with close to 200 men’s players and has also made offers to stars of the recent women’s Rugby World Cup to play in a parallel competition.
From an Irish viewpoint, the IRFU have little issue with controlling players by using the threat of expulsion from the national team. Already, players who choose to play their rugby outside of Ireland face that sanction.
Johnny Sexton was an exception to the rule; when Joe Schmidt came in as Irish coach in 2013, he chose to pick Sexton despite the outhalf signing for Racing 92.
To “safeguard the jersey”, Schmidt chose to overlook Simon Zebo for selection as soon as he joined up with the Parisian side.
Sexton, said Schmidt, was indispensable to the team. The point is that the former Irish captain was able to buck the system. His ability to successfully do that may highlight a weakness in the force of a blanket ban.
If several high-profile Irish players moved to the R360 for less matches and better salaries, would the IRFU act to weaken the national side by not selecting them?
If the offending players were no longer selected, would it constitute self-harm as the national side generates most of the money that funds many of the other IRFU programmes?
Then, if a critical mass of Irish players were attracted, depending on positions, any kind of collective ban could destabilise the national team.
But the devil is in the detail and there’s little of that at the moment. Right now, the unions are in a defensive posture but largely flying blind and plainly ticked off.
“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,” read the statement.
“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.”
Well, of course R360 isn’t a collaboration and if it proceeds without World Rugby ratification – which it seems unlikely to get – it is at best an alternative rebel body cut off from the rest of the game.
That doesn’t mean players are not interested. Last week, England’s world champion fullback Ellie Kildunne said she is “open to anything” when asked whether she would be involved in the proposed R360 league.
Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, the 2024 World Player of the Year may have sent England officials into a conniption.
“It doesn’t mean that I’d take it, but I’d like to understand the league a little bit more to see if that’s an opportunity that I’d like to take,” she added.
This week, before the statement to ban players was released, Ireland and Leinster winger James Lowe was asked about it at the Monday Leinster press conference.
“It’s a pipe dream at the moment,” he said. “If it comes to fruition, then obviously it’ll be interesting to see how it goes.
“I mean, they’re going after a few of the NRL (National Rugby League) boys; I heard a few big names [mentioned]. So, it’ll be an interesting concept.”
For players of a certain age and with a certain number of caps, who still have agency on the pitch, if the package is what Tindall and his disrupters promise, it could make sense as a lucrative exit strategy.
People tend to forget that while the ambition of top players is to represent their country, rugby is less affairs of the heart and more a cut-throat industry. Consequently, players take business decisions that make sense to them.
It’s not difficult to see why the unions closed ranks and went on the offensive.
