Latest news with #RFU
CNA
12 hours ago
- Business
- CNA
Red Bull complete takeover of Premiership strugglers Newcastle
Austrian energy drink company Red Bull has taken full ownership of Newcastle Falcons, who will be renamed Newcastle Red Bulls, the Premiership Rugby side said on Tuesday. The Kingston Park-based club, who were established in 1877 as Gosforth Football Club, have struggled in recent years, finishing bottom of the standings in the last three Premiership seasons in a row. "Red Bull's investment in Newcastle is a very positive development and demonstrates the confidence in and potential of the (Premiership)," Rugby Football Union (RFU) CEO Bill Sweeney said in a statement. "We've been pleased to support the club, the league and Red Bull in the process which will be the first major new investment in a Prem club since 2016." Several Premiership clubs have financially struggled in recent years, with Wasps, Worcester Warriors and London Irish being put into administration in 2022 and 2023, while Championship side Jersey Reds disbanded. Red Bull owns two of the 10 Formula One teams and has invested in soccer clubs across the globe, but this is their first acquisition of a rugby side. "We're delighted to have acquired Newcastle Red Bulls and look forward to empowering the club to reach its full competitive potential," said Oliver Mintzlaff, Red Bull's CEO for corporate projects and investments. Newcastle, who won the Premiership in 1998, begin their league campaign on September 26 when they host Saracens.
Reuters
12 hours ago
- Business
- Reuters
Red Bull complete takeover of Premiership strugglers Newcastle
Aug 12 (Reuters) - Austrian energy drink company Red Bull has taken full ownership of Newcastle Falcons, who will be renamed Newcastle Red Bulls, the Premiership Rugby side said on Tuesday. The Kingston Park-based club, who were established in 1877 as Gosforth Football Club, have struggled in recent years, finishing bottom of the standings in the last three Premiership seasons in a row. "Red Bull's investment in Newcastle is a very positive development and demonstrates the confidence in and potential of the (Premiership)," Rugby Football Union (RFU) CEO Bill Sweeney said in a statement. "We've been pleased to support the club, the league and Red Bull in the process which will be the first major new investment in a Prem club since 2016." Several Premiership clubs have financially struggled in recent years, with Wasps, Worcester Warriors and London Irish being put into administration in 2022 and 2023, while Championship side Jersey Reds disbanded. Red Bull owns two of the 10 Formula One teams and has invested in soccer clubs across the globe, but this is their first acquisition of a rugby side. "We're delighted to have acquired Newcastle Red Bulls and look forward to empowering the club to reach its full competitive potential," said Oliver Mintzlaff, Red Bull's CEO for corporate projects and investments. Newcastle, who won the Premiership in 1998, begin their league campaign on September 26 when they host Saracens.
CNA
a day ago
- Sport
- CNA
Pollock rewarded with England Elite Player contract
LONDON :Northampton flanker Henry Pollock, 20, has been rewarded for his stellar year by being included in a new 25-man group to be given Elite Player Squad (EPS) contracts, after the RFU published coach Steve Borthwick's selections on Monday. The contracts were introduced last September as part of the RFU's new agreement with the Premiership clubs and give Borthwick more control over players' sports science and medical matters while guaranteeing payment to the players involved even if they don't play in tests. Borthwick initially awarded contracts to 17 players but has now taken up his full allocation of 25, with Pollock the most eye-catching addition. Pollock was playing in the under-20s at the start of the year, but made a try-scoring full England debut against Wales in March and was then selected for the British & Irish Lions tour of Australia, where he featured in several tour games but did not win a test cap. Ben Curry comes in to join brother and fellow flanker Tom, with Sale winger Tom Roebuck also in after an impressive end to his season as back rower Tom Willis is also involved. Alex Mitchell remains the only scrumhalf while there are again three flyhalves - Marcus and Fin Smith and George Ford. There is no contract for former captain Owen Farrell, who last played for England in the 2023 World Cup before walking away from the international game, but is eligible again after returning from France to rejoin Saracens and having just played for the Lions. Hooker Theo Dan is the only player to lose his central contract. "These contracts, together with our strong relationship with the Premiership clubs, will continue to play an important role in the ongoing development of England Rugby," Borthwick said. England play Australia, Fiji, New Zealand and Argentina in this year's Autumn Series. England Men's enhanced EPS contracts: Fin Baxter (Harlequins) Ollie Chessum (Leicester Tigers) Luke Cowan-Dickie (Sale Sharks) Ben Curry (Sale Sharks) Tom Curry (Sale Sharks) Elliot Daly (Saracens) Ben Earl (Saracens) Immanuel Feyi-Waboso (Exeter Chiefs) George Ford (Sale Sharks) Tommy Freeman (Northampton Saints) George Furbank (Northampton Saints) Ellis Genge (Bristol Bears) Jamie George (Saracens) Joe Heyes (Leicester Tigers) Maro Itoje (Saracens) Ollie Lawrence (Bath Rugby) George Martin (Leicester Tigers) Alex Mitchell (Northampton Saints) Henry Pollock (Northampton Saints) Tom Roebuck (Sale Sharks) Henry Slade (Exeter Chiefs) Fin Smith (Northampton Saints) Marcus Smith (Harlequins) Will Stuart (Bath Rugby) Tom Willis (Saracens)
Times
a day ago
- Sport
- Times
Henry Pollock and Daly rewarded with new England central contracts
Henry Pollock is among the 25 England players to have signed an enhanced elite player squad contract with the RFU for the 2025-26 season. The first 17 enhanced EPS contracts, which are part of the Men's Professional Game Partnership, were introduced in October of last year to improve the management of international players at their clubs. Borthwick, the England head coach, did not fill the quota of 25 players in the first season, but he has done so for 2025-26. Pollock, the 20-year-old flanker, has been rewarded for a breakthrough season in which he excelled for Northampton Saints during their run to the Investec Champions Cup final, made his first — and thus far only — England appearance off the bench against Wales in the Six Nations, and went on the British & Irish Lions tour. In Australia, Pollock was unable to make it into any of the Test squads for the Lions, limited to the opening match against Argentina in Dublin and four outings on tour. The other players added to the group are Fin Baxter, Luke Cowan-Dickie, Ben Curry, Elliot Daly, Joe Heyes, Tom Roebuck, Will Stuart and Tom Willis. Theo Dan has been omitted from last year's cohort while Ollie Sleightholme, Fraser Dingwall and Chandler Cunningham-South, who were all heavily involved in England's resurgent Six Nations, can count themselves unlucky to have been overlooked. The contracts can vary in length from one to three years but the lengths of this season's deals have not been disclosed. Daly is included after excelling for the Lions in Australia before injury ended his tour. Ollie Lawrence and Henry Slade are the centres on the list, but Owen Farrell has not been included after his shock return to Saracens from Racing 92, making himself eligible for international rugby again. Indeed Farrell is the only Englishman who toured with the Lions this summer not to make the EPS list while Alex Mitchell is the only scrum half. There are 25 other players included in the wider 50-man elite player squad, who will continue to be in England consideration but who are contracted to their clubs. 'I am pleased to name the players who will receive an enhanced EPS contract this season,' Borthwick said. 'These contracts, together with our strong relationship with the Premiership clubs, will continue to play an important role in the ongoing development of England Rugby.' The RFU confirmed the new club-country deal, worth £33 million a year to Gallagher Prem clubs, in April of last year but the first batch of players was not confirmed for six months. Insiders described a 'two-year odyssey' of negotiations. During this time, the England players set up a new body called Team England Rugby to negotiate contracts, splitting from the Rugby Players' Association. Instead of match fees, which topped out at about £23,000 per man and make England players the best-paid internationals in rugby union, the enhanced EPS players were to be given a guaranteed sum of about £150,000 per season.
Telegraph
5 days ago
- Business
- Telegraph
Three leading Springboks sign up for rugby's R360 league
Four leading South Africa internationals have signed up to play in the new R360 after an explosion of interest following the British and Irish Lions tour of Australia. A groundswell of interest from players around the world is driving R360 towards its target of 200 men's players, with multiple sources insistent that the global franchise league will launch as planned in September 2026. Progress is said to have accelerated over recent weeks thanks to positive talks in Australia during the Lions tour and Telegraph Sport has been told that around 160 men have signed legally-binding pre-contractual agreements. The vast majority of these are thought to have appeared in a Test match in the past 12 months and one insider explained that R360 had been met with enthusiasm by governing bodies and players' unions. It is understood that R360 and the RFU were involved in informal conversations in Australia. Another source declared themselves '95 per cent confident' that the initiative would come to pass, suggesting that the key question has become 'will it work?' rather than 'will it happen?' 'I think this is a plane that is going to get off the runway,' said one third-party source. 'Whether it stays in the air or not is the next thing.' R360 is understood to have tied down four of the highest-profile Springboks – although that is understood to not currently include Cheslin Kolbe as the wing eyes a return to south Africa from Tokyo Suntory Sungoliath – as well as 10 players to have represented England at senior level over the past 12 months. Louis Rees-Zammit, the Wales wing, is understood to be eager to sign a one-year club deal for the upcoming season to seal his return to rugby union from American football for the 2025-26 season. This would leave him clear to take up a lucrative offer from R360 next year. Ardie Savea has been named as a target whose representatives have engaged with R360, though the All Blacks back-rower has announced a deal that will see him return to Japan with the Kobelco Kobe Steelers in 2026 before coming back to New Zealand in 2027. It's understood that no current members of the All Blacks squad have signed up. While it has proven difficult to make headway in Ireland, because top players have their work-loads managed through central contracts from the Irish Rugby Football Union and enjoy other benefits such as tax relief for professional sportspeople, there is said to have been traction in France recently. According to one source, this is partly because of the grind of the French season. After reaching the finals of both the Champions Cup and the Top 14, for instance, Bordeaux-Bègles played 36 games across the 2024-25 campaign. Although slightly older players have been prioritised over emerging tyros such as Henry Pollock and Wallace Sititi, R360 are confident that they have attracted some of the best under-23 talent in the world. Players from Argentina, Australia and the Pacific Islands are understood to feature prominently in the R360 roster, as do All Blacks based away from New Zealand. Jye Gray of the South Sydney Rabbitohs became the latest in a flurry of National Rugby League (NRL) stars to be linked with R360 this week. Reports in Australia claimed that the 21-year-old has been offered a sum of around $929,000 AD (£450,000) to cross codes. Such speculation, which was not denied by Gray, followed similar stories about Kalyn Ponga, Roger Tuivasa-Sheck and Ryan Papenhuyzen. Gray's coach at Rabbitohs, the decorated Wayne Bennett, recently warned that R360 was becoming a 'huge threat' to the NRL. 'Look at the golf,' he said. 'Who would have thought LIV would be a threat, but it is. The amount of money they have paid, we will never be able to match them [R360] if they are serious about the amount of money they have to spend. 'Where does this end for the NRL? The game has to address this and come up with a plan. We'd be foolish to suck our thumbs and hope to God it goes away.' Co-founded by Mark Spoors, the former player agent, and Stuart Hooper, previously director of rugby at Bath, R360 has grown to a team of around 30. These include John Loffhagen, a lawyer with experience of establishing cricket's Indian Premier League (IPL) and LIV Golf. Alistair Maclean, who stepped down from his role as World Rugby's group general counsel in January 2024, has aided in an advisory role. Having the league sanctioned by World Rugby will be among R360's next milestones. With Mike Tindall as another figurehead, the organisation is aiming to stage Formula One-style seasons with schedules comprising 12 teams – eight men's and four women's – and a slate of 16 matches per season. These will take place across two windows between April and June and then between August and September. R360 has continually stressed that it wants its players to be available for internationals and will preserve a gap in its calendar for future Lions tours. Sources suggested that there are proposals for a mass pre-season camp that will see all 12 teams based together in the same location before the season takes them to cities around the world. Barcelona, Buenos Aires, Cape Town, London, Los Angeles, Sao Paolo, Melbourne and Munich were all mentioned in an R360 brochure that was circulated to potential franchise owners. Investment is said to be secured with details of the franchises set to be announced in the weeks that follow the women's World Cup final, which takes place on September 27. R360 will not bear the costs of owning stadiums and are thought to view live-streaming, perhaps on YouTube, as an important shop window for the sport. There remains scepticism. One source in New Zealand, for instance, suggested that the All Blacks would hold firm in their policy of overlooking players based overseas, pointing out that sabbaticals in Japan competition would still earn comparable money. If England's selection policy remains as it is now, with individuals only eligible for international duty if they are affiliated to a Premiership club, an R360 contract would almost certainly rule those from players out of World Cups and Lions tours. Another source raised the possibility of R360 cannibalising the sport if it significantly disrupts domestic competitions such as the Premiership, which has itself just received the boost of outside investment with Red Bull poised to take over Newcastle Falcons. R360 figureheads are mindful of this friction and have repeatedly outlined their intention to 'come through the front door' as they bid to take off and reshape the landscape of rugby union.
