Ireland amongst unions to warn players joining R360 'would make them ineligible for internationals'

Rugby’s leading Tier One national unions, including Ireland’s have confirmed they will be advising their men’s and women’s players they will no longer be considered for Test selection if they join the proposed breakaway R360 competition. Pic: ©INPHO/Dan Sheridan.

Rugby’s leading Tier One national unions, including Ireland’s have confirmed they will be advising their men’s and women’s players they will no longer be considered for Test selection if they join the proposed breakaway R360 competition.

R360, fronted by former England World Cup winner Mike Tindall, have claimed they have already signed more than 200 male players for a new team competition spread across multiple countries and set to launch in October 2026.

The rebel organisation is said to be offering big-money contracts and a pared down playing schedule to lure existing Test players to their format and have insisted it need not detract from the traditional international game.

On Wednesday, the International Rugby Players Association urged caution to members of its constituent players’ unions regarding signing for R360 and later in the day saw the release of a joint statement by the Irish Rugby Football Union and the national rugby unions of New Zealand, Australia, South Africa, England, Scotland, France and Italy, which declared players signing for R360 would become ineligible for Test selection.

"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.

"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."