Munster CEO Flanagan casts doubt on the viability of R360 competition getting off the ground

Munster CEO Ian Flanagan. Pic: Ryan Byrne/Inpho

Munster Rugby CEO Ian Flanagan has cast doubt on the viability of the sport’s breakaway R360 competition to get off the ground.

Eight Tier One national unions, including Ireland’s, on Tuesday said its male and female players will no longer be considered for Test selection if they join the proposed competition.

R360, fronted by former England player Mike Tindall, claim they have signed more than 200 male players for a new team competition spread across multiple countries, set to launch in October 2026 and are said to be offering big-money contracts and a pared-down playing schedule to lure stars to their format.

Flanagan expressed his misgivings about the sustainability of such a project, particularly with the Tier One nations sending out what he views as a “very strong signal” to its players.

“The rugby ecosystem is a fragile business model across the board and around the world,” Flanagan said. “We're obviously mindful of anything that could destabilise that model even more.

“Speaking realistically as someone who's worked in an awful lot of sports and been involved with new tournament structures and investors, I struggle to see the maths adding up for any investor to jump into a new format.

“In rugby, when there's already an awful lot of established brands that people could invest in much more cheaply, in established tournaments and fan bases. That would be my view. We'll obviously keep a watching brief on it but it's not something that keeps me awake at night at the moment.” 

The joint statement by the national rugby unions of Ireland, New Zealand, Australia, South Africa, England, Scotland, France and Italy read: "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."