Rugby world weighs rebel league rumblings and US expansion
Rugby administrators may think they have covered their bases to withstand a Saudi-backed rebel league – which would sign the world’s best 360 players at double their current salaries – but there is another move on the horizon that could yet drain Australia of talent.
Apart from sounding like a cheap fax machine from the 1980s, the R360 rugby rebel league is starting to feel like most rebel leagues: great in theory but nothing more than a fancy PowerPoint presentation unless someone stumps up the cash.
Whether Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund is prepared to throw billions of dollars at the grand prix-style competition remains to be seen. Its involvement has been widely speculated but not confirmed.
R360 will need Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman’s ashtray change if it’s to take the game’s best 360 players, double their contracts, then sprinkle them across eight men’s and four women’s teams playing matches all around the world, from Sao Paulo to Barcelona to New York.
According to those who have seen the proposal, which former England captain Mike Tindall is fronting, the numbers don’t add up. “Delusional” is the word that keeps popping up, although with a caveat: if the Saudis step in, they will “disrupt” rugby as they did golf.
While the northern hemisphere unions and media are in a tizz about R360, Rugby Australia seems less jittery: its big-name players, except for prop Taniela Tupou, are stitched up for the foreseeable future.
Perhaps the pointier question for RA is the prospect of a California-based team entering the Super Rugby Pacific competition in the next two to three years.
When reports emerged in early May about World Rugby chairman Brett Robinsonand chief executive Alan Gilpin meeting with officials in Los Angeles, the concept was dismissed like R360 is now. I’m told, however, that discussions have only intensified, with investors and global brands interested in buying into a franchise – or at least becoming a major sponsor.
French superstar Antoine Dupont recently bought a stake in Rugby Football Club Los Angeles (RFCLA) through his company, Ouest Coast.
The North America division of Red Bull, which is on the verge of buying UK premiership plodders Newcastle Falcons, is based in Santa Monica.
World Rugby is enthusiastic about a US-based Super Rugby team because it wants the code to prosper ahead of the country hosting the men’s Rugby World Cup in 2031 and women’s tournament in 2033. Specifically, it wants a strong Test side that is capable of reaching the quarterfinals.
When Japan reached the quarters while hosting the world cup in 2019, it turbocharged the popularity of the sport.
World Rugby believes Super Rugby is the way forward in the US because the Major League Rugby premiership isn’t producing the homegrown talent needed to make an impression on its national team.
The Eagles are currently ranked 15th in the world.
Under one proposal, 50 per cent of the Super Rugby franchise’s squad would consist of American players, with Wallabies and All Blacks making up the rest.
The New Zealand Rugby Union is receptive to the idea. You can only imagine that US private equity firm Silver Lake, which has two directors on the board, also sees it as a way of making back some of the $NZ200m ($185m) it has invested since 2022.
Rugby is in a far better position that rugby league to gain traction in the US market. The NRL’s Las Vegas experiment provides a sugar hit of publicity at home to start the season, but that’s about it.
Indeed, the strongest “rugby” brand in the US is the All Blacks, who play Ireland at Chicago’s Soldier Field on November 1 for a second time. There are more than 900 registered college rugby teams in the US.
The NZRU, though, doesn’t want to spend any money on a US-based franchise because it can’t afford it. Neither can RA, which has done well in navigating itself out of perilous financial waters.
The optics of dropping vast sums on a speculative Super Rugby franchise in the US wouldn’t be great.
There has also been a renaissance of sorts for the Super Rugby Pacific competition.
Stan Sport enjoyed a 27 per cent increase in average audience across the regular season, while average free-to-air audiences on Nine grew by 13 per cent. Crowds are also up.
Mostly, the product is immeasurably more watchable than it has been in previous years.
Nevertheless, rugby in this corner of the world needs a shake-up, although perhaps not one as dramatic as the one foreshadowed by R360.
A Super Rugby franchise based in California – the world’s fourth-largest economy – could be the type of disruption it needs.
Lord of the quicks
Pat Cummins’ father, Peter, was overcome with emotion in the stands when his son took his 300th wicket in Test cricket on day two of World Test Championship Final at Lord’s.
When Cummins dismissed Kagiso Rabada to close out South Africa’s first innings, he not only became the eighth Australian to enter the exclusive club but also finished with 6-28 – the best figures from a captain at the famous venue. Sitting next to Peter Cummins was Venues NSW chairman David Gallop.
“It must feel weird having a son who just took 300 Test wickets,” he said.
“You do pinch yourself,” Peter replied.
It’s dangerous to make bold declarations about a team when a Test is still in progress, particularly one as capricious as this one. At the time of writing, the match was on a “knife’s edge”.
Regardless, Australia’s top order remains a concern in an Ashes year and selectors have some tricky decisions to make.
The obsession of getting Cameron Green in the team at any cost backfired with him failing miserably at No.3. Opener Usman Khawaja looks cooked and Marnus Labuschagne spends more time walking around looking bewildered when he’s dismissed than at the crease.
If Australia ekes out a victory it will confirm this team’s status as one of our greatest and much of the kudos must go to the captain.
A long line of former players didn’t like the way coach Justin Langer was pushed out but the results, on Cummins’ watch, have been there for all to see. This Australian team just wins.
Travis Head’s comments on the eve of the Test could easily have been interpreted as a smackdown of Langer, whose intensity had many players on edge. A knife’s edge, if you will.
“Gone are the days of an optional session that wasn’t optional,” Head said.
“It was optional if you wanted, but naughty if you didn’t. So, it was the optional ‘yes’ session. It was the optional ‘must be there’.
“We’re in a great environment now where we’re backed to be able to prepare how we want and come in at different drop points.”
Tabcorp managing director Gillon McLachlan and Channel 9 personality Eddie McGuire were expected to attend the match on day three.
Support for Ange
Sacked Tottenham Hotspur manager Ange Postecoglou was spotted in the Lord’s crowd on day one, looking quite relaxed for someone who’d just lost their job. Then again, a payout of $8.3m certainly softened the blow of his messy departure.
Who knows? He could return at any moment if Spurs chairman Daniel Levy listens to the fiery words of Melbourne Lord Mayor Nick Reece, who has demanded the Premier League giant backflip on its decision to sack Postecoglou and appointed Thomas Frank on a three-year deal.
“Don’t let Tottenham be known as the team that is allergic to silverware,” Reece commented on social media.
Levy has been facing a player and fan revolt over his decision to punt Postecolgou from the club, but maybe the irate words from the Melbourne Lord Mayor on Instagram will convince him to change his mind.
Not a dry eye
Say what you want about the AFL – and many have of late – but it certainly knows how to throw a lavish black-tie event, as it did with its Hall of Fame induction at Crown Palladium in Melbourne on Tuesday night.
AFLW players Erin Phillips and Daisy Pearce were among those inducted. There wasn’t a dry eye in the house when Phillips paid tribute to her father, Greg, an eight-time premiership winning player for Port Adelaide who was inducted in 2020.
“To Dad, I can’t imagine how hard it would have been to tell your 13-year-old daughter that she couldn’t play the game she loves anymore,” she said. “And, 27 years later, she’s standing next to you in the Hall of Fame.”
Predictably, there’s been criticism of Phillips and Pearce’s inductions with questions raised about why they weren’t forced to wait five years in retirement like male players. Pearce retired in 2022 with Phillips following in 2023.
Under the AFL’s rules, AFLW players are eligible a year into retirement. It’s also been forgotten that the induction for men started at two years in retirement, before moving to three, then to five.
You must be pretty miserable to criticise their inclusion into the Hall of Fame.
Paws for thought
On Monday night in Sydney’s inner-west, tyre smoke from a hotted-up car doing a burnout on Belmore Road in celebration of Canterbury’s win against the Eels wafted into a nearby kebab shop, setting off the alarm and prompting the fire brigade to attend.
If that’s how Bulldogs fans react after a victory against a side that’s second last on the ladder in June, what will happen if they win a finals match in September?
Snapping up 19-year-old whiz kid Lachie Galvin mid-season from the Tigers looked like a prudent call when he came on with 23 minutes to go, doing what was needed at halfback.
It’s too early to know if his arrival will make or break the Bulldogs’ run at the premiership. The cranky demeanour in the dressing-room of hooker Reed Mahoney – who was sidelined when Galvin came on and has been told he can talk to rival clubs – suggests not everyone is happy.
Such is the way of professional sport. Loyalty counts for little. But it’s an intriguing storyline.
Bulldogs boss Phil Gould often talks about winning teams requiring the right “chemistry” ahead of strong “culture”. Time will tell if Gould has been too greedy in rushing Galvin into the club.
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