R360 rebel circuit is flawed – Premiership boss

Premiership Rugby bosses say that a proposed rebel breakaway rugby circuit targeting some of the league’s top stars is fundamentally flawed, and would wreck the pathway producing new talent.

R360, which has been fronted by former England centre Mike Tindall, plans to launch next year, promising bumper contracts, a globe-trotting itinerary and new revenue streams.

However, Premiership Rugby chief executive Simon Massie-Taylor says he has had no contact with its organisers and doubts their ambitions can be realised.

“It’s not a threat per se, but we have no idea how it could ever work full stop – definitely not for the club game in England, in France, the United Rugby Championship, in the southern hemisphere.”

R360 plans to run in two blocks – from April to June and August to September. Its organisers hope its schedule might co-exist with the men’s international rugby calendar in the northern hemisphere, however it would put it on a collision course with domestic rugby in Europe.

England are contractually obliged to pick players from Premiership clubs, meaning any R360 recruits would immediately risk their Test career.

Any new event may not be sanctioned by the game’s governing bodies and would require significant investment to lure players, hire venues and market itself to fans.

With the new Nations Cup tournament beginning in 2026, a first Club World Cup cleared for launch in 2028 and new, deeper agreements between the existing club and international game, Massie-Taylor believes the start-up competition risks the gains of recent years.

“Rugby needs roots, it doesn’t need pop-ups,” he added.

“There’s an international game, there’s a club game that relies on it, and there’s a community game.

“The whole thing’s linked and the community game’s inspired by both. Funding comes down to help the community game and that sometimes is an inhibitor to growth because you have to find a solution that compromises all these types of things.

Premiership Rugby says it has recorded 30% growth among fans aged 18-34, while this Saturday’s Premiership final between Bath and Leicester has sold out in record time.

It is one of 30 matches to have sold out this season, up from 18 in 2023-24 and 13 in 2022-23.

Broadcaster TNT Sports have reported 10% growth in audiences for the Premiership this season, and recorded their biggest Friday night rugby audience ever for Bath’s semi-final win over Bristol.

TNT boss Andrew Georgiou was more blunt about R360’s claims that they can tap into unrealised audiences and income.

“If these folks believe that they are going to grow the revenue by putting this thing on, I think they’re delusional,” he said. “I really do.

“What it will do is further complicate what is already a well-functioning rugby ecosystem.

“I would just ask some pretty fundamental questions around is this a commercially sustainable model?

Following in the footsteps of Harlequins’ well-established ‘Big Game’ concept, Bristol played their home game against West Country rivals Bath at Cardiff’s Principality Stadium last month, drawing more than 51,000 to the Welsh capital.

Another club is considering the possibility of shifting a regular-season home game to a bigger stage for the 2025-26 season, with Massie-Taylor saying the league might test the waters across the Atlantic in the run-up to the Rugby World Cup in the United States in 2031.

Newcastle staged a home game against Saracens in Philadelphia in 2017, but the fixture fell well short of the hoped-for sellout, with the 18,500-capacity Talen Energy Stadium less than a third full.

Saracens, who were also the ‘away’ team for London Irish’s more successful St Patrick’s Day fixture in New Jersey in 2016, have shown interest in taking a game stateside previously, with then chief executive Mark Thompson saying in September they would “certainly” consider it if the circumstances were right.

The 2025-26 Premiership season will begin on a Thursday evening, with the opening round reconfigured to avoid any clash with the Women’s Rugby World Cup final.

The Red Roses are hot favourites to advance to Saturday, 27 September’s showpiece at Twickenham’s Allianz Stadium.

The first matches of the season will be spread across Thursday 25, Friday 26 and Sunday, 28 September, with a number of clubs interested in testing out the timeslot on Thursday evening.