Wednesday’s Rugby News pumps extreme hype into Donkeys v Canes and the French tour of New Zealand. There’s another breakaway comp circling plus UK-based Lions viewers to get getsylwebaeth cymraeg.
Brumbies v Hurricanes may not matter.
According to stuff.bro.nz, if this weekend’s first two finals fixtures go according to seeding, ie, the Crusaders v Reds on Friday and Chiefs v Blues on Saturday each win have home wins, the Brumbies and Hurricanes will both be guaranteed to advance to the semi-finals before their game has kicked off at 19:35 AEST. Under the new finals format, the highest ranked loser from the three games will still qualify for the semi-finals.
Canberra locals will of course be completely unfamiliar with the spectacle of people turning up to work and doing something that doesn’t matter.
French might send semi-competitive team to NZ, subject to more meetings and shrugging.
PlanetRugby reports that France head coach Fabien Galthie has had his playing stocks boosted ahead of the three-Test tour to New Zealand.
Les Bleus were set to tour Middle Earth without several of their top players due to an agreement between the French Rugby Federation (FFR) and the National Rugby League (LNR) over players’ loads (steady-on).
The FFR confirmed in October last year that Galthie wouldn’t be able to select certain players and had to adhere to the agreement between the two governing bodies yet again, but outcry from several French players, including star flyhalf Romain Ntamack, and the New Zealand Rugby Union, sparked debate about a possible exception being made. The LNR and FFR have been locked in talks since, and on Monday they announced the outcome of their decision which will give Galthie more freedom in selection but with some restrictions.
Galthie will select a 42-man squad for the tour to New Zealand with the FFR confirming that it will feature players who “had little or no” involvement in the 2025 Six Nations Championship (so, the backs?), where France were crowned champions. Additionally, the head coach will not be permitted to select players from the clubs in the Top 14 final with the exception of a maximum of five players. The five players from those clubs must also meet the following conditions:
– The players called upon must not have had “too much” playing time during the 2024/2025 season;
– Their selection will be subject to the prior agreement of their club; and
– The players’ drinking, smoking and womanising is not to be deleteriously affected by the New Zealand tour.
The FFR added that “preliminary discussions will take place at the beginning of June between the coach of the France Men’s XV and the manager of the club concerned.”
The France v NZ tour promises to be an absolutely cracking series to rival the Lions.
“R360” Super League/World Rugby Corporation type thing lurking.
The BBC and Nine report that a proposed “R360 League” is being touted as a “grand prix” style franchise competition that will feature eight men’s teams alongside a professional women’s league. Matches are to be played across major global cities for 16 rounds. Competition organisers are hopeful to launch the inaugural fixture in 2026, with organisers looking to recruit several of the world’s highest profile rugby stars.
It is unclear how the league’s organisers – Mike Tindall (pictured above in Queenstown), ex- Bath rugby coach Stuart Hooper and John Loffhagen, a lawyer who assisted in launching LIV Golf – will secure the hundreds of millions of dollars that is required to fund the competition.
Players have been promised salaries of up to $2 million a year and has reportedly already signed “dozens of players” for heads of agreement. Only non-bullshitters would speak in vague terms like that! Members of the British & Irish Lions tour squad have been reported to be among those who have signed, with Wallabies stars also among those approached.
Players were offered contracts to sign that would only take effect if the competition was to receive the adequate funding to launch next season. According to the BBC, a number of senior figures in the game believe the proposal lacks substance and will struggle to get either the approval needed from the governing bodies or the required investment. This has echoes of the only-seed-funded World Rugby Corporation attempted raids of the mid-1990s. According to the Nine report, Australian players elected to turn down the offers, noting the 2027 Rugby World Cup as a major incentive to stick to Plan A.
Also, New Zealand Rugby and Rugby Australia both currently operate with strict selection policies for those wanting to play Test rugby. In the UK, the terms of the new Professional Game Partnership (PGP) require the Rugby Football Union to only pick players who play in the Premiership.
The proposed dates for the competition will also be a concern, with the competition reportedly set to run between April and September. A break would be included in the fixture for the July international window but the season would still clash with the Rugby Championship.
Poms get Lions games free-to-air….but only with Welsh commentary.
The Guardian reports that the British & Irish Lions’ tour to Australia will be available to watch free-to-air on TV in the UK – but for now only in Welsh. The Lions have agreed a deal for a highlights package with Welsh language channel S4C, which will be available throughout the UK via S4C’s iPlayer service and the popular “Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch Rugby Player Reacts” YouTube channel.
There are just two Welshmen in Andy Farrell’s 38-man squad – the flanker Jac Morgan and the scrum-half Tomos Williams. One or two more Welshmen would be required for a close harmony singing trio or quartet, respectively. The Welsh contingent of two is their lowest ever, meaning they join Ireland in 1993 and Scotland in 2009 and 2017 as the least represented countries on a Lions tour.
The Lions remain hopeful of securing a free-to-air highlights deal in England, but have yet to do so three weeks before their first official tour game in Dublin. Channel 4 bought UK highlights rights for the Lions’ last tour, to South Africa four years ago, but has not made an offer on this occasion, while ITV, BBC Sport and Channel 5 have also yet to bid.
