D'Arcy Waldegrave: Sportstalk host on the 8 international rugby unions' statement on the Rugby 360 competition

R360 has reacted to the eight nations who have agreed to ban any players defecting to the rebel rugby competition.

They've claimed this new league is designed to work around the global calendar...not against it.

Sportstalk host D'Arcy Waldegrave explains further.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Are not a great poll for the National Party out
today at all. So I'm going to run you through
that shortly seventeen past four.

Speaker 2 (00:06):
Who won board? With the tap app? Download and get
your bed on eighteen bit responsibility?

Speaker 1 (00:12):
You can't take you anywhere, Darcy.

Speaker 2 (00:13):
Who won the pole? Do you have a winner? Oh?

Speaker 1 (00:16):
You're so lame. That's just what a dad joke.

Speaker 3 (00:19):
I'm talking about sport though I reference everything back to
time was they're a winner? No?

Speaker 2 (00:24):
Right, okay, good, I.

Speaker 1 (00:25):
Know what you mean. I was commenting on the quality
of your joke. Listen Downcy water Grave Sports Talk Hoast.
If you don't know which loon I'm talking to right now.
Do you look at the rugby bosses coming out and
saying to the players, if you go to the Rebel League,
you can't play the black jersey. Do you see that
as a sign that they're worried about the rebel League?

Speaker 2 (00:43):
Yes? Yeah they should be.

Speaker 3 (00:45):
Why they should be because this is backed by Saudi money.
They've got a lot of money. They don't care about profit,
they don't care about what they're going to make. They're
about diversifying away from oil, which has only got a
set amount of time before it disappears, regardless of what
some politicians over here think, it's going to go on forever.

Speaker 2 (01:02):
I've got to stop this. I'll get away from that.

Speaker 3 (01:04):
But they're looking at sport because this is a wonderful
conduit to the human race and they're flying into it.
So they don't care to make any money and if
they throw enough money at people, they'll change. So World rugby,
you've gone, oh, oh, hold on, this is a game changer.
We've got to say now, if you sign with this league,

(01:25):
you're not playing INTERNASA because they're freaked out. But I
like the way it's an upsetter in global rugby, really do.

Speaker 2 (01:33):
I love it.

Speaker 1 (01:33):
But there are serious questions and reasonable questions as to
whether it would work or not. Because if you're basically
doing what the World sevens are doing, but you're doing
World fifteens, are people going to turn out and watch it?
Is that a sustainable format?

Speaker 2 (01:43):
Right?

Speaker 1 (01:44):
But what this move indicates is they may well think
it is a sustainable format. World Rugby.

Speaker 3 (01:48):
They are worried because they don't want to lose the cream,
and the best way they can stop the cream being
whipped off the top.

Speaker 2 (01:54):
Is by mind does no. But they've got I'm led
to believe Eve the Herald understands.

Speaker 3 (02:02):
We understand that there are a number of players weighing
this up, and they've got and they've got to be
done kind of like November rest are the thing. So
it's coming.

Speaker 2 (02:12):
Rapidly toward the end of that.

Speaker 3 (02:14):
So world rugby have gone, okay, look, we need to
draw understand and we need to do that very soon
to stop players, to discourage players.

Speaker 1 (02:23):
I mean, isn't it just gonna What it'll mean is
that the Aaron Smiths of the world, instead of heading
off to Japan, will head off to Saudi money. Like
he's not going to stop everybody.

Speaker 3 (02:31):
No.

Speaker 2 (02:32):
But also, and this drag on our.

Speaker 1 (02:34):
Players away for money is already happening.

Speaker 3 (02:36):
There's a couple of aspects to this that I don't
think people quite understand, and one of those is the
player safety and how the players are affected by this,
and what guarantees are in place for the players around
what they do, how much they play, how on the
contracts for they are. That's why all these rugby wards

(03:00):
there's eight of them now, have said, you know, show
extreme caution because they simply don't know what the future holds.

Speaker 2 (03:07):
I don't know.

Speaker 3 (03:08):
So like if you're an Aaron Smith, you're an older player,
you're not gonna go any further. You've done everything you
need to do, and there's a chance to make a
couple of million because they were talking big money, maybe
you just go, you know what, I don't care if
it doesn't give me a sign on fee and I'll run.
So you're losing that in maybe some of the younger
players who figure I'm gonna get an all black jerzy anyway,
so I'm going to go and cash. But Lester when

(03:30):
he disappeared off to France, still really young. But if
I might have a chance, so I'll go and do
it anyway. You come back, he's back in the side again.
But if the rugby teams or nations concern say absolutely not,
that does stop that in it's tracked and it seems
to be very light on detail. Might be three sixty,
a lot of bluster, a lot of we got this,
we're gonna do this, We're gonna do but not a

(03:52):
lot of detail. And I think you've got to be
aware of lack of detail from these moneyed overloads.

Speaker 1 (03:57):
Yeah, very interesting. Are you talking about this on the show.

Speaker 2 (03:59):
Yeah, Nichol's going to join US Rugby Players Association CEO.
You think you know a few things, yep.

Speaker 1 (04:05):
Listen to half past five with me because I'm gonna
talk to Mark Robinson, rugby boss. Okay, okay, you listen
to mine, and I'll listen to yours.

Speaker 2 (04:11):
What you're okay, your water, We're gonna deal with politics.

Speaker 1 (04:17):
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