Folau on the brink

Hearing finds Wallabies star breached contract

ISRAEL Folau’s career is on the brink of ruin.

The rugby star’s fight for his $4 million contract took a major blow after the panel presiding over his code of conduct hearing deemed his social media post was a high-level breach of his Rugby Australia contract.

RA had moved to terminate Folau’s contract based on their conclusion that he had made a high-level breach of his contract – low and mid-level breaches would not allow them to sack him.

While the panel has yet to reach their decision on what the ultimate sanction for Folau will be – this could take days – the fact they’ve agreed with RA that the Wallabies fullback has committed a high-level breach has greatly heightened the chances that Folau’s rugby career in Australia is finished.

Folau’s legal team had argued that his homophobic social media posts were not his own words and that of Biblical scripture, while claiming his player contract did not include specific clauses about what he could and could not post on social media.

However, after 22 hours of hearings over three days, the panel of John West QC, Kate Eastman SC, and John Boultbee AM decided that Folau had indeed breached RA’s Professional Players’ Code of Conduct at the highest level.

It means Folau, who rejected a settlement offer of $1 million by RA before the matter went to a code of conduct, will not receive any payout now.

Both Folau and RA will give written submissions to the panel before a sanction is handed down.

Folau and his legal team will plead for leniency on the issue, saying while it is a highlevel offence, he should be fined and suspended instead of having his contract torn up.

RA will counter that they have no option but to go through with the sacking, given Folau’s vilification of the gay community, and the reputational and financial damage he has inflicted upon the code.