Sam Ackerman: Sport commentator rejects international concerns over R360

The discourse surrounding the R360 League is growing increasingly heated.

The rugby unions of New Zealand, Australia, South Africa, England, Ireland, Scotland, France and Italy issued a joint statement on Wednesday (NZT) refusing to endorse the proposed Saudi-funded competition.

Sport commentator Sam Ackerman says the unions are overreacting- "that's like saying back in the day, if you had converted to, to rugby league, then you could never go back to rugby union or vice versa."

He told Ryan Bridge that the players shouldn't be blamed for taking a good opportunity.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Rugby unions around the globe are banding together against R
three sixty unions from New Zealand, Australia, South Africa, England.
They're all saying, you can't play for Mike Tindall's new
outfit and then go play for your country. Sam Ackman
Sports commentated with me this morning. Sam, Good morning, morning,
Royan Hey. Critics are saying, some are saying that this
will be the death of rugby union. Is it a
bit overcooked massively?

Speaker 2 (00:21):
They just need to take a little breath and remember
that professional sport does things like this quite often in
the number of sports, and they seem to still be
thriving and going on. Rugby league was ripped apart by
a civil war in nineteen ninety five and it's producing
some of the biggest numbers the sports ever produced. Now
Goalscot the live tour running separately to the PGA that
is supposed to employ that sport but not happening as well.

(00:44):
What this is is a bunch of unions, powerful unions
they used to have in their own way, circling the wagons.
I don't blame them for doing so, but the fact
of the matter is there is an entity that we
know very little about talking about playing stupid money for
these athletes and good on the athlete, so that anyone
who ends up going to this and making that kind
of professional athletes, that's what they're to do. They're there

(01:04):
to make a living, would a plumber, as would a lawyer,
as would a journalist. Whoever, if there's great money is there,
it's there to take. So I think calling it the
potential death of rugby is getting a little hysterical, drawing.

Speaker 1 (01:16):
On the Indian Premier League, as you mentioned the live
Golf thing. In fact, I see that the former lawyer
for Live Golf is involved in this. Where are they
getting all this money from?

Speaker 2 (01:25):
Yeah, well that's the four billion dollar question, is it right?
It's as far as where things are on transparency, there
is no We don't even have public figures speaking of this.
They're talking about starting a competition next year with no
public plans about who the teams are, where they are
any sign names. It all feels a little on the
dicey side. Back to the day, this is no bigger

(01:48):
threat to New Zealand rugby than French rugby is, or
Rugby League is, or if the NFL decided do you
know what, we want really good kickers and we're going
to go to New Zealand and take the goalkickers out
of every super team. There's always options to go other
places and good money to do so. The real threat
is if too many take up the offer. What does
that mean for New Zealand and their international eligibility rules Poby.

(02:10):
For those who have strict rules, it's harder to apply.
But I find interesting Australia, for example, South Africa two
unions that are happy to pack from overseas. They picked
their Wallabies or their spring Bloxer anywhere they want to
play except R three sixty. Why because they have no
control over what's going on there. They will have to
one day down the line if our three sixty gets

(02:33):
off the ground, if it goes well, it's something they
need to reconsider right now. International rugby is their bargainingship
and they're using it.

Speaker 1 (02:41):
And does this all have to be signed off by
World Rugby And if so, what is their criteria for
doing that now?

Speaker 2 (02:48):
Well, World Rugby is an entity as much like FIFA.
They have the greater interest of the game at hard
as long as it works in with their interests. So
as long as that world rugby is going to be
a positioned that they can make enough money from or
something that they can work with, well, then they're prepared
to talk right now. Because everything is so loosey goosey,
there's no rules around it. They're certainly not going to
tell the unions that they can't stop these players from

(03:10):
being picked from over there because your own, your own
individual eligibility rules. The real problem comes when you see
some saying well, if you go to three sixty, you
won't be welcomed back. Well, it's professional sport. That's like
saying back in the day, if you had converted to
rugby league, then you could never go back to rugby
union or vice versa. Those walls are done. People need
to kind of move past that and understand it's an

(03:30):
opportunity for these athletes. Listney's yonders. We want to see
the best players planning for the All Blacks and be
available without question, but the same token if they can't
match the money it's being offered, can you really blame them?

Speaker 1 (03:41):
Absolutely not, samppreciate that. Sam Ackham and sports commentator with
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