Folau saga again puts game on the brink
Castle could crumble if she can’t fix mess and Oz star simply walks away to Europe
If only Australia’s Super Rugby teams were as hard to shut down as the scandals that incessantly blight the game across the Tasman. This latest incident with Israel Folau (pictured) and his insistence he has the right to express his personal views regardless of content appears increasingly likely to end in disaster.
Either he’s going to end up quitting his contract or new Rugby Australia (RA) boss Raelene Castle is going to be a short-lived appointment. More likely is both happen — Folau signs with a European or Japanese club and Castle’s position becomes instantly untenable when she is blamed for the Wallabies losing their best player a year out from the World Cup.
Folau has done four things since he met with Castle last week to clear the air after he wrote, in a social media post, that unless gay people repent their sins they will be condemned to an afterlife in hell and eternal damnation.
The first thing he’s done is make sure everyone knows he’s not sorry; the second is that he doesn’t feel he has done anything wrong; the third is he has warned he is incapable of being anything other than true to himself and his beliefs and the fourth is that his faith is more important than his career.
And by doing so, he’s actually made five things clear — which is that this business has not been put to bed and will no doubt rumble along before it most likely explodes when he says something hateful again.
The impression he has given is he’s willing to sacrifice being a Wallaby to speak his mind and if something pops up on his radar that offends his religious sensibilities, he’s not going to turn the other cheek.
Why would he when he’s managed to express worryingly homophobic views and avoid censure on the basis RA, as they have confirmed in a written statement, have accepted his justification he didn’t mean to offend anyone? This is a new low in rugby’s supposed attempt to recast itself as an inclusive and diverse sport.
Folau has been granted immunity to prosecution on the grounds RA have ruled homophobia is acceptable when it is expressed as part of devout Christian beliefs. It’s an astonishingly weak response which illustrates just how much RA want this business to end with Folau committed to seeing out his contract and willing to signing another and with the wider Australian public satisfied that the matter was dealt with sensitively and appropriately.
But it is not going to go away and probably RA are going to have to accept that with Folau unrepentant, he isn’t going to accept he doesn’t have the right to say what he feels like and not be disciplined for it.
Which makes Folau a certainty to re-offend and when he does RA can’t grant him immunity a second time on the same basis.
The “didn’t mean to offend” argument is a one-time only defence and RA are going to have to stand up to Folau and discipline him, which will inevitably risk him either walking out on his contract immediately, no doubt citing persecution or not signing an extension when it finishes this year.
Either way, he’ll be lost to RA and Castle will be in the firing line as her first significant act in the role will be to preside over the loss of the country’s best player.
The alternative is they continue to back off and then face the prospect the public will see the national body is willing to tolerate extreme views if the player that espouses them is really important to the Wallabies.
Australian rugby, it seems, can’t stop stumbling from one crisis to the next and just as some of the worst scarring caused by the axing of the Western Force is starting to heal, Folau has plunged the game across the Tasman back to the brink of disaster.
Northland wing Jordan Hyland, who scored two tries in a good performance against the Sunwolves, will almost certainly start against the Highlanders.
Halfback and skipper Augustine Pulu has missed the last five matches due to an ankle injury, while All Blacks midfielder Sonny Bill Williams has been out with a wrist injury since the Blues’ defeat by the Stormers in Cape Town last month.
Veteran loose forward Jerome Kaino, who tore his hamstring against the Chiefs at Waikato Stadium, could be out for another six weeks.
Midfielder George Moala is out for the season with a chest injury, while lock Scott Scrafton, an excellent performer last year, is also out for the season with a leg problem.
The Blues are 14th of 15 Super