Welcome voices in Folau debate

At a time when rugby hierarchies around the world have been keeping their heads tamely beneath the parapet, it should come as no surprise that the first ones to break cover were a couple of halfbacks – a breed not best known for keeping their mouths shut.

Brad Weber and TJ Perenara should be applauded for speaking up against Australian back Israel Folau’s view that God’s plan for homosexuals is that they are bound for hell unless they ‘‘repent of their sins’’.

Folau, who is well known for his strongly held religious convictions, has every right to hold the opinions he does. But others have a right to reject them just as strongly.

For too long, Folau’s employer, Rugby Australia, has been reluctant to take a stance on the issue, and many others in the game have been only too happy to follow its timorous lead.

So it is to the enormous credit of Weber and Perenara, along with respected referee Nigel Owens, that they have been willing to add their voices to the debate. And what strong voices they have been.

Chiefs halfback Weber was the first, writing on Twitter: ‘‘My cousin and her partner, and my aunty and her partner, are some of the most kind, caring people I have ever had the pleasure of knowing. To think that I play against someone that says they’ll go to hell for being gay disgusts me.’’

His Hurricanes counterpart Perenara joined in, tweeting: ‘‘As professional rugby players, whether we like it or not, we are role models for a lot of young people. Notably, young Ma¯ ori and Pasifika people’’, and pointing out those people are over-represented in youth suicide statistics. ‘‘Comments that cause further harm cannot be tolerated.’’

The lingering question for Folau is not just whether his comments will be tolerated, but to what extent his presence on the field will be.

His Super Rugby team, the Waratahs, come to New Zealand next month, to play the Crusaders, and might well find his reception is less than ecstatic.

That may serve to remind him that freedom of speech does not mean freedom from responsibility.

His sporting success has given him mana among his community, and a public platform he would not otherwise have had, which includes more than 340,000 followers on Instagram.

He would be well advised to use that platform more wisely – and Rugby Australia has now, far too belatedly, put out a memo to its Super Rugby players, warning them of their obligations to use social media in a respectful way.

There is surely room for all shades of opinion to be heard, including Folau’s, and the more we hear, the more we can debate them.

When was the last time we heard All Blacks discussing homosexuality in mature and measured tones?

In an unlikely – and surely unintended – way, Israel Folau might just have done public discourse a favour.