Gregor Townsend has been allowed to fill his boots ... why shouldn't his Scotland players do the same in new rebel league?

When Kerry Packer was in the process of revolutionising cricket back in the late 1970s, major players within the sport found themselves being exiled from their national teams.

None more so than Tony Greig. After signing up to Packer’s World Series Cricket, Greig was stripped of the England captaincy and his international career came to an abrupt end.

That was almost 50 years ago. Yet, although vilified at the time, Packer’s rebel series laid the foundations for what was to become the more modern version of one-day internationals and, latterly, Twenty20 cricket.

When the T20 format exploded in popularity and the Indian Premier League was formed in 2007, players were once again threatened with expulsion from their national teams if they chose to participate.

Now? It’s just an accepted reality that the IPL exists alongside Test cricket, ODIs and the domestic game. Sure, there’s still the odd wrangling about schedules and player availability, but no one is banned from playing in it.

Likewise, after all the initial outrage about the LIV Golf tour, players are now free to do what they want. The likes of Jon Rahm and Bryson DeChambeau are free to play in all the majors and compete in the Ryder Cup.

As a sport, rugby union is playing catch-up with all of this. There is no doubt that the sport’s old guard and established order is being challenged in a way like never before.

The proposals for a new rebel breakaway series, branded R360 and fronted by former England star Mike Tindall, are real.

With the series set to start next year, and with huge salaries on offer, it is understood that around 200 players have already agreed pre-contracts to sign up for it.

Clearly, this isn’t going away. Other iterations of rebel leagues in rugby may have died a death in the past, but this one is very much alive and kicking.

The prospect of R360 potentially poaching some of the game’s top talent drew a blunt statement released collectively on behalf of eight of the game’s leading national unions earlier this week.

Signed by Scotland, England, Ireland, France, New Zealand, Australia, South Africa and Italy, the statement made clear what the consequences would be for any player who defects.

‘As a group of national rugby unions, we are urging extreme caution for players and support staff considering joining the proposed R360 competition,’ it read.

‘Each of the national unions will therefore be advising men’s and women’s players that participation in R360 would make them ineligible for international selection.’

In other words, don’t even think about it. Not only is it an attempt to warn players against jumping ship, it is an attempt to kill off the threat of R360 before it even gets off the ground.

But rugby’s authorities and those calling the shots within the unions are naïve if they believe that they can resist these moves for much longer.

There is also a fair degree of hypocrisy at play. One of the key underlying principles of any well-run governing body should be an ability to generate revenues and maximise their income.

That’s just sound business practice. Only last week, a source at Scottish Rugby explained the ‘commercial opportunities’ that could arise from Gregor Townsend’s new job with Red Bull.

So it’s fine for the unions to maximise their income, it’s fine for head coaches to take on a second job and line their pockets, but the players are vilified as mercenaries or traitors if they look to do something similar?

It smacks of double standards. With Townsend and Scottish Rugby’s performance director David Nucifora allowed to pursue other opportunities on a part-time basis, the SRU are in no position to criticise or ban anyone.

If players want to do the same thing whilst making a few quid for themselves, a threat to ban them from playing for their countries is just an act of desperation. It would also be hugely counter-productive.

Let’s be hypothetical for a moment and suppose that several of Scotland’s big hitters sign up for R360. Finn Russell, Sione Tuipulotu, Huw Jones, Duhan van der Merwe, Darcy Graham, Blair Kinghorn. All of them, gone.

Are the SRU seriously going to embrace a reality where Scotland would be playing Test matches without a dozen or so of their best players? That would be cutting their nose off to spite their face.

What needs to happen is for everyone to get round a table and find a way to co-exist. Throwing around threats about banning players will achieve nothing. Other sports have taught us as much.

As a sport, rugby is brutally physical and unforgiving. Players spill their own blood on a regular basis, bones are broken, concussions are suffered, muscles are torn.

Compared to other sportsmen and women, they have more of a right than anyone to maximise their earnings in what is a short career that can be ended at any moment by injury.

At any stage of their career, they are only ever one bad tackle and one bad injury away from retirement. They also earn much more modest salaries compared to footballers and golfers.

It’s not a lavish lifestyle. When he passed his driving test a couple of years ago, Glasgow Warriors and Scotland star Rory Darge was pitching up at Scotstoun in a little Suzuki Swift.

Only once players reach the very top level of the game and become stars on the Test scene do their salaries start pushing into six figures.

For the rank and file, they earn what most people would consider to be a good salary, but not mega-bucks by any means. Their careers will last maybe 10 years or so, then the money stops. There is no guarantee of long-term security.

They are only trying to look after themselves and their families. Doing the same job for double the salary if they join the rebel league? Given the chance, we would all do the same thing and sign up for it.

There is also no loyalty in rugby, nor in sport overall. If they lose form or fall out of favour, players can be tossed aside by their national teams at any given moment.

By and large, rugby is not a rich sport. Hence why it continues to be so vulnerable to the prospect of someone coming in with deep pockets and setting up a breakaway competition.

Two years out from the next World Cup, the feeling is that a lot of game’s best players won’t jump ship just quiet yet.

There are still a lot of details to be ironed out. But after the World Cup in 2027? All bets are off. Rugby is evolving.

It is a million miles removed from the sport that left the amateur era and turned professional 30 years ago.

As the stars of the show and the ones who put their bodies on the line, you can hardly blame the players if they want to be paid appropriately.