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Fallen star Folau not finished with RA yet

Israel Folau. (Photo by Anthony Au-Yeung/Getty Images)

Israel Folau and Rugby Australia are headed for a bitter showdown with the embattled Wallabies superstar pledging to tackle the governing body head on in a desperate bid to save his career.

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Folau met RA boss Raelene Castle on Friday, with neither party backing down in a feud that threatened to turn ugly.

Folau maintained a stony silence after earlier holding crisis talks amid RA’s threat to tear up his multi-million-dollar contract following his latest attacks on homosexuals.

Supported by his professional netballer wife Maria, the three-time John Eales Medallist spent the morning at a Sydney cafe with Rugby Union Players’ Association boss Prataal Raj and another RUPA representative plotting his next move.

He refused to talk when approached by a TV reporter, but it’s understood Folau told Raj he wanted to observe his right to challenge RA’s planned sacking at a code of conduct hearing.

Rugby Australia later released a telling joint statement with the NSW Waratahs.

“Our joint position regarding Israel Folau is unchanged,” it said.

“As the meeting was held in confidence between the player and his employers, Rugby Australia and the NSW Rugby Union will not comment on the discussions at the meeting.

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“Following today’s meeting, the two organisations will update their respective boards on the matter to consider next steps.”

On Friday evening, the NSW Rugby Union doubled down with its own statement, saying Folau had been stood down.

“NSW Rugby Union has stood down Israel Folau from all player duties with the NSW Waratahs until further notice.”

RA and NSW Rugby had on Thursday night said Castle had been unable to “directly contact” Folau to advise him of her intention to terminate his $4 million four-year contract.

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Castle later took to Twitter to clarify that she’d been in “in constant contact” with Folau’s manager Isaac Moses in the 24 hours since his latest social media attacks on homosexuals as well as “drunks, adulterers, liars, fornicators, thieves, atheists and idolaters”, who Folau said were all destined for hell.

“He (Moses) did reach Israel, however I was unable to speak with him,” Castle tweeted.

“In the absence of compelling mitigating factors, it is our intention to terminate his contract.”

Beyond his fierce commitment to his faith, it re mains a mystery as to what had motivated Folau to continue his social media outbursts after being warned last year to express his views in a “respectful” manner.

It would seem incomprehensible that the code-hopping ace would risk his career – and the opportunity to win a World Cup this year with the Wallabies – if he didn’t have another playing option.

But with ARL Commission chairman Peter Beattie slamming the door shut on Folau attempting to return to the NRL, it appears a move overseas – or retirement – will be his only options if unsuccessful in any appeal against RA’s intention to cut him free.

Beattie said the former Test and State of Origin rugby league star “fails the NRL’s inclusiveness culture”.

Folau’s spectacular fall from grace even had the prime minister weighing in on Friday.

“I thought they were terribly insensitive comments and, obviously, that was a matter for the ARU and they’ve taken that decision,” Scott Morrison said.

“It is important that people act with love, care and compassion to their fellow citizens and to speak sensitively to their fellow Australians.”

Sport Australia boss Kate Palmer commended Rugby Australia’s strong stance against discrimination and vilification and urged all sports to follow suit.

But former Wallabies coach Alan Jones slammed RA’s threat to sack Folau, saying the decision had “completely corrupted” free speech in Australia.

AAP

In other news: NZR interested in teenage sprinter

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Flankly 1 minute ago
'Absolute madness': Clive Woodward rips into Borthwick in wake of NZ loss

Borthwick is supposed to be the archetypical conservative coach, the guy that might not deliver a sparkling, high-risk attacking style, but whose teams execute the basics flawlessly. And that's OK, because it can be really hard to beat teams that are rock solid and consistent in the rugby equivalent of "blocking and tackling".


But this is why the performance against NZ is hard to defend. You can forgive a conservative, back-to-basics team for failing to score tons of tries, because teams like that make up for it with reliability in the simple things. They can defend well, apply territorial pressure, win the set piece battles, and take their scoring chances with metronomic goal kicking, maul tries and pick-and-go goal line attacks.


The reason why the English rugby administrators should be on high alert is not that the English team looked unable to score tries, but that they were repeatedly unable to close out a game by executing basic, coachable skills. Regardless of how they got to the point of being in control of their destiny, they did get to that point. All that was needed was to be world class at things that require more training than talent. But that training was apparently missing, and the finger has to point at the coach.


Borthwick has been in the job for nearly two years, a period that includes two 6N programs and an RWC campaign. So where are the solid foundations that he has been building?

4 Go to comments
N
Nickers 10 minutes ago
Scott Robertson responds to criticism over All Blacks' handling errors

Very poor understanding of what's going on and 0 ability to read. When I say playing behind the gain line you take this to mean all off-loads and site times we are playing in front of the gain line???


Every time we play a lot of rugby behind the gain line (for clarity, meaning trying to build an attack and use width without front foot ball 5m+ behind the most recent breakdown) we go backwards and turn the ball over in some way. Every time a player is tackled behind the most recent breakdown you need more and more people to clear out because your forwards have to go back around the corner, whereas opposition players can keep moving forward. Eventually you run out of either players to clear out or players to pass to and the result in a big net loss of territory and often a turnover. You may have witnessed that 20+ times in the game against England. This is a particularly dumb idea inside your own 40m which is where, for some reason, we are most likely to employ it.


The very best ABs teams never built an identity around attacking from poor positions. The DC era team was known for being the team that kicked the most. To engineer field position and apply pressure, and create broken play to counter attack. This current team is not differentiating between when a defence has lost it's structure and there are opportunities, and when they are completely set and there is nothing on. The reason they are going for 30 minute + periods in every game without scoring a single point, even against Japan and a poor Australian team, is because they are playing most of their rugby on the back foot in the wrong half.

43 Go to comments
N
Nickers 40 minutes ago
Scott Robertson responds to criticism over All Blacks' handling errors

I thought we made a lot of progress against that type of defence by the WC last year. Lots of direct running and punching holes rather than using width. Against that type of defence I think you have to be looking to kick on first phase when you have front foot ball which we did relatively successfully. We are playing a lot of rugby behind the gain line at the moment. They are looking for those little interchanges for soft shoulders and fast ball or off loads but it regularly turns into them battering away with slow ball and going backwards, then putting in a very rushed kick under huge pressure.


JB brought that dimension when he first moved into 12 a couple of years ago but he's definitely not been at his best this year. I don't know if it is because he is being asked to play a narrow role, or carrying a niggle or two, but he does not look confident to me. He had that clean break on the weekend and stood there like he was a prop who found himself in open space and didn't know what to do with the ball. He is still a good first phase ball carrier though, they use him a lot off the line out to set up fast clean ball, but I don't think anyone is particularly clear on what they are supposed to do at that point. He was used really successfully as a second playmaker last year but I don't think he's been at that role once this year. He is a triple threat player but playing a very 1 dimensional role at the moment. He and Reiko have been absolutely rock solid on defence which is why I don't think there will be too much experimentation or changes there.

43 Go to comments
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