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All of a sudden, the phones stopped ringing.
After months of regular and encouraging conversations, the last week has seen R360’s leading authorities go quiet on rugby’s top agents. ‘It’s been radio silence,’ said one well-placed source. It came at the worst possible time.
For most of this year, rugby’s proposed breakaway league had been confident of launching in 2026. While England’s 2003 World Cup winner Mike Tindall and the rest of R360 have not spoken publicly, the noises behind the scenes had all been positive. Until they weren’t.
On Friday, R360 confirmed a delay to its scheduled start until 2028. Critically, in doing so, it explained its decision ‘will provide the necessary runway to strengthen R360’s credibility, continue collaborative discussions and partnerships with rugby’s stakeholders, and position the league to launch at full scale with maximum global impact from the outset’.
R360 insist privately there is still a confidence the new league, which promised ‘generational change’ in rugby, will get off the ground and that there is the financial backing for it to do so. But there has to now be very real doubts as to whether that will happen at all.
The self-enforced delay is undoubtedly a blow to R360’s credibility. Equally, it can also be seen as a victory for the game’s established order. So, what has changed?
England’s 2003 World Cup winner Mike Tindall has been leading the attempts to get the R360 league off the ground. But on Friday they announced a delay to its scheduled start until 2028
Louis Rees-Zammit scores against the All Blacks. The Welshman had agreed to leave Bristol and join R360 in 2026 but now his domestic future is uncertain
More than 200 players signed up to join R360, despite England’s RFU and other leading nations confirming in October they would ban those who joined from playing Tests.
Initial contracts had been offered and signed. But in the last week, there was a delay in receiving the long-form agreements. It was explained that this was due to a need to change the location of the contracting company from the UK to Dubai. Some smelled a rat. They have been proven right.
After being understandably tempted by the offer of huge salaries and improved player welfare, many players who were out of contract this summer and had signed up with R360 have now had the rug pulled from under their feet.
Almost as soon as the R360 press release confirming its delay dropped at 9.30am on Friday morning, the agents’ phones started buzzing once again. R360 now has one huge, huge problem. How it will attract player buy-in two years from now?
In 2025, rugby’s star performers have had a carrot dangled in front of them. Many were interested, only to see that offer now taken away. Why should they trust that the same thing won’t happen again in 2028? Some feel they have already been made enough false promises. There is a frustration among players and representatives that a lot of time and energy has been put in over the past 12 months or more with no tangible result.
R360 offered shiny lights and big pay cheques. But, ultimately, it remains short on detail. A good example of a player who will now have to rethink is Bristol and Wales wing Louis Rees-Zammit. Rees-Zammit returned to rugby from NFL for the start of this season. He signed a one-year deal with Bristol but had agreed to then join R360. Now, his domestic future is uncertain, even if it is likely the Bears will offer an extension.
‘The decision to shift our launch to 2028 is a strategic decision based on timing,’ said Tindall, R360’s most high-profile figure alongside a former agent in Mark Spoors. ‘Launching under compressed timelines would not meet the standards we set for R360, nor would it deliver the long-term commercial impact the sport deserves.’
R360 has attempted to buy time. In the next two years, it hopes to further engage with the national unions and clubs and also put more money in the bank. R360 reaffirmed what it said was a strong financial position by announcing the appointment of non-executive chairman and principal investor Martin Gilbert alongside a host of other backers who wish to remain anonymous.
South Africa’s captain Siya Kolisi would be a massive attraction for R360 but he is determined to play in the 2027 World Cup
International rugby has huge appeal for the players who would put that in danger if they signed up for R360
But it is clear they now have their backs to the wall. Rugby’s top stars, on the whole, do not want to stop representing their countries and international rugby continues to thrive.
A total of 1.26million supporters have watched the November Tests across Europe in the past month. South Africa’s captain and leading light Siya Kolisi told Daily Mail Sport: ‘My goal is still to play in 2027 (at the next World Cup). If coach Rassie Erasmus said he doesn't need me, then I'd look at another opportunity. But for now, I'm still selected as Springbok captain. I'm still here.’
The unions are almost certain not to change their position on R360. It means that the battle facing Tindall, Spoors and Co to totally change rugby’s ecosystem – which was already an uphill one – is now bordering on the insurmountable.
‘We remain absolutely determined to bring R360 to life at full scale and with maximum global impact,’ said Tindall, understandably putting a positive spin on what was bad news. ‘We’re building something bold and new that will resonate globally and we cannot wait to show the world in 2028.’
That may well be the hope. But it is hard to escape the feeling that Friday may well have been the beginning of the end for R360. It is a long way back from here.
