Northern Edition

Select Edition

Northern Northern
Southern Southern
Global Global
New Zealand New Zealand
France France

Folau launches legal action against Rugby Australia

folau

Lawyers for dumped Wallabies star Israel Folau have lodged an unfair dismissal claim against Rugby Australia.

ADVERTISEMENT

Applications were filed with the Fair Work Commission on Thursday against both the NSW Rugby Union and the national governing body following Folau’s sacking last month after his controversial social media posts on his religious beliefs.

Having been warned last year by RA boss Raelene Castle, the 30-year-old dual international posted a bible passage on Instagram proclaiming hell awaits “drunks, homosexuals, adulterers, liars, fornicators, thieves, atheists and idolaters” unless they repent their sins.

“No Australian of any faith should be fired for practising their religion,” Folau said in a statement.

After an epic code-of-conduct hearing stretching 22 hours over three days and featuring some of the sharpest legal minds in Australia, RA and the Waratahs terminated Folau’s multi-million-dollar contract on May 17 citing a “high-level” breach of his contract.

Folau had 72 hours to appeal the judicial panel’s decision at a second code of contract hearing, but opted against doing so, saying he had lost faith in RA’s ability to treat him fairly or lawfully.

Folau will now argue that under the Fair Work Act his employment was unlawfully terminated because of his religion.

ADVERTISEMENT

“I will forever be grateful and proud to have played the sport I love for our nation,” he said.

“Ours is an amazing country built on important principles, including freedom of religion.

“A nation made up of so many different faiths and cultural backgrounds will never be truly rich unless this freedom applies to all of us.”

Documents lodged with the commission claim the sacking meant Folau was prevented from playing at the peak of his career and on the cusp of a Rugby World Cup, which would have generated greater exposure and opportunities.

“The messages of support we have received over these difficult few weeks have made me realise there are many Australians who feel their fundamental rights are being steadily eroded,” Folau said.

At the time of the sacking, Rugby Australia chief executive Raelene Castle said it was a sad day for the sport to terminate the Wallabies’ three-time player of the year and Super Rugby’s all-time leading try-scorer.

ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT

LIVE

{{item.title}}

Trending on RugbyPass

Comments

0 Comments
Be the first to comment...

Join free and tell us what you really think!

Sign up for free
ADVERTISEMENT

Latest Features

Comments on RugbyPass

F
Flankly 2 hours 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
TRENDING
TRENDING Marcus Smith on that substitution and his England plea Marcus Smith on that substitution and his England plea
Search