Leading Red Roses players are being targeted by R360’s breakaway league with the Rugby Football Union fearing such moves could destroy their World Cup-winning legacy.
Telegraph Sport understands that a significant number of John Mitchell’s squad have already signed pre-contract agreements with R360.
The rebel league’s co-founder, Mike Tindall, claims to have the necessary funding to launch an inaugural competition featuring four women’s franchises alongside an initial six men’s teams next October.
Ellie Kildunne, the poster girl of England’s World Cup triumph on home soil, is a leading target for the R360 organisers, who on Tuesday announced their intention to go ahead with the competition with or without sanctioning from World Rugby.
It is understood that Kildunne, who scored a sensational try in the 33-13 final victory against Canada on Saturday, is yet to formally sign a contract.
Tindall was a key part of England’s 2003 World Cup-winning team and is a member of the Royal family, via his marriage to Zara Tindall, the late Queen’s eldest granddaughter.
Fears R360 could destroy women’s Premiership
There is a growing acceptance within English rugby circles that R360 will get off the ground in some capacity next year. Yet while the RFU is relatively relaxed about the effect on the men’s team, its chief executive Bill Sweeney is understood to be agitated by the impact on the women’s game and fears R360 could destroy Premiership Women’s Rugby, the RFU’s flagship domestic competition.
The R360 competition would also cut across several international windows. The inaugural competition would directly clash with the launch of the new WXV Global Series, which will run in September and October next year. In 2027, the proposed R360 calendar would overlap with the women’s Six Nations and the first women’s Lions tour to New Zealand.
R360 organisers had initially promised to release players in all international windows but this appears to apply only to male players. “It seems clear they did not understand that the women’s calendar operates independently of the men’s and they have separate windows,” a union source said. “R360 have shown a real lack of understanding of the women’s game because they did not come to any unions to discuss where this would fit in the global calendar and instead went straight to the players.”
Heading into the World Cup, England’s squad collectively agreed not to discuss the R360 proposal until after the tournament, although Mitchell is believed to know that several players have signed with R360.
The RFU was taken aback on Tuesday when R360 announced internally that it had acquired the financial backing to launch a three-year competition cycle after previously pushing back its bid to seek sanctioning from World Rugby from September to next June. The RFU is discussing what its response should be to a potentially existential threat to its women’s programme
RFU unable to match higher fees
While several recent England male internationals are believed to have signed with R360, England’s policy of not picking players based outside the Prem means that the current trickle is unlikely to become a flood leading into the 2027 World Cup. Yet in the women’s game, the dynamics are significantly different.
Whereas R360 can potentially double or triple men’s salaries, in the women’s game they can offer the top players five or six times their wages. Leading members of the Red Roses are paid about £50,000, before bonuses and commercial earnings, while some players in the PWR are on as little as £10,000-£12,000. Sources have suggested R360 is offering deals to female players ranging from £70,000 to £270,000.
The RFU would be unable to match those offers but is examining other potential incentives and hopes the appeal of playing on a first Lions tour and the tight-knit bond the Red Roses developed will stem the flow of departures.
This weekend members of Mitchell’s squad will tour grass-roots clubs up and down the country in what is being billed as RugbyFest, aiming to inspire the next generation. A key part of the messaging is that young players can see their heroes in the flesh in the new season of PWR, which starts in four weeks and will be broadcast by the BBC and TNT Sports. The RFU has spent millions to establish the PWR as the premier club competition in the world.
There is also significant concern among Prem and PWR clubs, who commit at least £900,000 to their women’s sides, some exceeding £1m. Those clubs receive only £180k in central funding – from the RFU, sponsorship and broadcast deals – and a senior PWR source told Telegraph Sport that they fear a “literal collapse” of the game in England should R360 succeed in poaching the number of players required for four women’s franchises.
Losing both star power and a significant portion of the playing base, including non-English players, would indeed act as a crushing blow to both the PWR and the halo effect of the World Cup triumph. “It would completely torpedo it,” said one informed source.
Other unions are grappling with similar problems with players from the New Zealand and Australian women’s teams also understood to have signed heads of agreements. R360 would also have a devastating effect on the new WXV Global Series, which was unveiled to great fanfare by World Rugby during the World Cup.
R360’s latest missive offered more insight into the organisers’ plans. Players will be registered to the United Arab Emirates Rugby Union, while the franchise locations mooted are London, Miami, Tokyo, Dubai, Boston, Cape Town, Lisbon and Madrid. R360 maintains that players will be released for international duty – which will prove easier logistically in the men’s game than the women’s – however it would be up to individual unions to decide whether to select them. No player will be forced to reside in their franchise location, it is understood.
A spokesperson for R360 said: “We’re truly excited to launch the first fully professional and full-time women’s league next year. R360 is designed to showcase the best rugby players in the world, capture the imagination of fans globally and grow our sport in the years ahead.”
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