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Hooper: 'You take your friends warts and all, and your teammates'

Wallabies superstar Israel Folau has two days to respond or face the sack after being served with a breach notice by Rugby Australia over his controversial social media posts.

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RA CEO Raelene Castle said the RA integrity unit had deemed Folau had committed a “high level” breach of the players’ code of conduct which warranted termination of his contract.

“Israel has 48 hours to accept the sanction or have the matter sent to acode of conduct hearing,’ Castle said.
Folau remains stood down by RA over his religiously-motivated posts last week proclaiming hell awaits “drunks, homosexuals, adulterers, liars, fornicators, thieves, atheists and idolaters”.

Asked if Folau was being punished for his religious beliefs, Castle said “this is not a religious discussion, this is a discussion around the employee-employer relationship.”

Castle said Folau had been unapologetic about the posts and his stance when she met with him last Friday.
“That left us with no option but to move forward to the position that we’ve taken,” Castle said.

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He had been warned, formally and repeatedly about social media expectations after he made similar posts about a year ago.

“It was made clear to Israel in writing and verbally when I met with him last year that any social media posts or commentary that in anyway were disrespectful to people because of their sexuality would result in disciplinary action,” Castle said.

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“Despite this Israel has chosen to ignore this warning.”

Castle said there had been no additional clauses about social media use inserted in Folau’s latest contract.

“It’s very disappointing from my perspective because I had a very direct and specific conversation with himabout the expectations that I had,” Castle said.

“He accepted that conversation, he said that he understood that conversation, he shook my hand at the end of that and said he was very clear, and yet he has gone off and done this.”

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Earlier on Monday,Wallabies coach Michael Cheika told reporters that Folau’s “disrespectful” comments would make it impossible to pick him in the national team, which is preparing for this year’s World Cup in Japan.

“Getting out in that disrespectful manner publicly is not what our team’s about,” Cheika said on Monday. “When you play in the gold jersey, we represent everyone in Australia – everyone. Everyone that’s out there supporting us. We don’t pick and choose.”

Asked if he would be comfortable taking the field again alongside Folau, Wallabies and NSW Waratahs captain flanker Hooper said: “In this current state and being here and talking about this as a rugby player, it makes it hard, it makes it difficult.

“You take your friends warts and all, and your teammates,” Hooper added.

Cheika said he didn’t think the issue would rear its head again after the controversy of last year’s tweets and Rugby Australia’s subsequent talks with Folau.

He had tried unsuccessfully to contact him for an explanation.

“We had a discussion at the end of the last time and made it pretty clear about his right to believe and our support in that if that’s what he wants,” he said.

“I felt that I needed to talk to him about why, and I haven’t had that chance as yet. I’m sure I will in the future at some stage when it settles down for him a little bit.

“I made the calls and left the messages. There’s no beef.”

Folau told reporters after attending his church on Sunday that he stood by his posts and wasprepared to walk away from the game for the sake of his faith.

Waratahs CEO Andrew Hore said the his players, one of who is Folau’s brother John, had been briefed on Monday.

AAP

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SK 1 hour ago
Why England's defence of the realm has crumbled without Felix Jones

The way they are defending is sometime pathetic to be honest. Itoje is usually on the inside of the rush and he is paired with a slower tight forward. Unable to keep up with the rush we have seen the line become disconnected on the inside where the big boys are. How many times have we seen Earl rush past the first receiver almost into no mans land covering no attacker. It looks like a system without any guidance. Tome Wright, Ikitau and a number of Wallabies went back to this soft centre as did Williams, Jordan and several others. Also when the line is broken the multiple lines of defence seems to be missing. The rush is predicated on a cover and recovery system with multiple lines of defence but with England you dont see it any more. Fitness and conditioning seems to be off as well as players are struggling to keep up with the intensity of the rush. Felix Jones has left a huge hole. The whole situation was and is a mess. Why they insist on not letting him go and having him work remotely is beyond me. Its leading to massive negative press and is a hot button issue thats distracting from the squad. Also the communication around Jones and his role has been absolute rubbish and is totally disjointed. While some say he is working remotely and playing a role others are saying theres been no contact. His role has not been defined and so people keep asking and keep getting different answers. England need a clean break from him and need to start over. Whatever reason for his leaving its time to cut the rope before the saga drags the whole Borthwick regime down. As for Joe El Abd well good luck to him. He is being made to look like an amateur by the whole saga and he is being asked to coach a system thats not his and which has been perfected and honed since 2017 by Nienaber, Jones, Erasmus and Co and which was first started by White in 2004. He is literally trying to figure out a system pioneered by double world cup winning coaches at the highest level and coach it at the same time. Talk about being on a hiding to nothing.

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