Eight leading international Unions – five from the Six Nations and three from The Rugby Championship – have warned players who sign up to the proposed R360 competition that they will not be eligible to play for their country.
The Unions involved in issuing today’s joint statement – Ireland, England, Scotland, France and Italy from the north and New Zealand, Australia and South Africa from the south – have said that there are still far too many unanswered questions over key areas, such as player welfare and scheduling, for them to endorse R360.
The statement said: “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.
“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 — from grassroots participation to elite performance. 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.”
The Rugby Football Union have made it clear that their stance also applies to women’s rugby, with R360 players excluded from Red Roses selection.
