Sir John Kirwan slams rugby’s ‘amateur governance’ and selfish unions amid rebel league wake-up call
Ex-England captain Mike Tindall, who is fronting the R360 rebel league, and All Blacks legend Sir John Kirwan.
Sir John Kirwan believes that the proposed rebel league could well provide the wake-up call the sport needs should it become a tangible threat.
Known as R360, it is being fronted by Mike Tindall and is reportedly backed by significant investment, while over 150 players are understood to have accepted pre-contractual agreements.
There is still a lot of work to do for it to become a viable competition, but it has certainly gained traction over recent months.
It will no doubt concern World Rugby, who have yet to sanction it, and many of the individual governing bodies around the globe.
Kirwan sees benefits of rebel league
Kirwan himself is open to the idea, believing that it could be a positive for the sport, but more than anything, the All Blacks legend hopes it can motivate the top nations to work closer together.
“It’s a slight on our politicians and the people who run our game. It shouldn’t take a rebel organisation to wake ourselves up,” he said on the Rivals podcast.
“We’ve been professional for 30 years but we still have an amateur structure of governance running our game, so we move too slowly, we haven’t worked out a professional model that’s going to work for everyone.
“We can’t talk to each other, we all get in our corners; New Zealand only looks after themselves, Ireland only looks after themselves, South Africa only looks after themselves, and that’s our problem.
“We need to get some really strong business into our game so that we’re not so political. Things like this should be coming from World Rugby, not an idea from someone else.”
Former Ireland star Andrew Trimble joined Kirwan on the podcast and agreed with the ex-All Black’s sentiments.
Trimble feels the “whole governance is conservative” and that they are not doing enough to grow the game.
‘Rugby values’ criticism
The 40-year-old also took a swipe at the ‘rugby values’ mantra which he believes is holding the sport back and dissuading potential fans from getting involved.
“We’re careful, we’re too concerned about the ethos and the spirit of rugby. Even just saying that embarrasses me because it’s like snobbery – we’re saying rugby is for this type of person,” Trimble said.
“Ultimately, we want rugby to be celebrated by everybody else out there, we know that this is an amazing sport, we know it changes lives, we know this is entertainment and we want it to be wider than the niche market it is at the minute.
“The governance or the decision-makers, they’re just conservative and they’re worried that a new model like this looks gimmicky.
“Everything looks gimmicky at the start. The NFL looked gimmicky at the start, the Lions probably looked gimmicky at the start… so I just think we need to be a bit more open-minded.”
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