Rugby Australia Showcases Supreme Financial Literacy By Refusing To Let The Arabs Cover A Few Salaries

CLANCY OVERELL

Editor

In a strangely familiar scenes, Rugby Australia has today announced that any local footballers who join the new R360 global franchise league will be ineligible for international selection.

This bold and well thought-through decision is reminiscent of the mid-2000s, when Australia’s savvy rugby administrators banned the selection any greedy homegrown players who went to Japan or Europe to make the kind of money that fringe NRL players make in their final year of high school.

While noble, the 2000s blacklist was then loosened with the ‘Giteau Law’ after RA nearly went broke in the lead up to the 2015 world Cup because they hadn’t won a match against New Zealand for a decade and players actively began seeking careers outside of the green and gold because they’d probably play to bigger crowds in provincial Wales.

While the Super Rugby Comp has well and truly suffered as a result of the Giteau Law, the Wallabies have never been stronger .

But this time it’s personal. It’s one thing for Japanese and European clubs to seduce our footballers with their ski fields and Mediterranean sunbeds. But the Arabs?

The UAE-backed R360 league, fronted by former England centre and Royal-in-law Mike Tindall, is due to launch in 2026 and media reports have linked it with big-money offers for top rugby union and league players.

Australian rugby loyalists are disgusted at the mere suggestion that the gentleman’s game could be disrupted the way those animals have done to golf, FIFA and stand-up comedy.

While some say that Rugby Australia is once again choosing to be on the wrong side of history just to appease their xenophobic blue-blooded base, RA insists this is what everyone is doing, and they definitely won’t backpedal on this when their star athletes end up choosing tens of millions of dollars over the opportunity to lose the 24th Bledisloe in a row.

Because Rugby Australia is currently flushed with cash after the recent Lions tour, and they are going to be rich forever.

Meanwhile, when it comes to rugby league, the NRL will likely just ask Channel 9 to guarantee media careers to their star players who are tipped to abandon Australia – like they did with Joey Johns when the Wallabies came calling.