Northern Edition

Select Edition

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

John Folau exits the Waratahs in the wake of Israel's expulsion

John Folau with his former NRL club, Parramatta. (Photo by Mark Metcalfe/Getty Images)

Israel Folau’s brother has quit the NSW Waratahs – less than three weeks after the Wallabies superstar had his multi-million-dollar contract with Rugby Australia torn up.

ADVERTISEMENT

Coach Daryl Gibson on Thursday said 24-year-old John Folau had been grappling with “divided loyalties” before being granted a release from the Waratahs.

The ordeal of seeing his brother sacked by Rugby Australia and the Waratahs for expressing his controversial religious beliefs on social media appears to have taken its toll on the young backline utility.

“We gave John some time off for leave and he has come back to us recently and asked for a release, which we’re happy to grant,” Gibson said.

“John has been in a difficult position for the last wee while. He has got really divided loyalties to his family and his brother and then also to the team.

“He wanted to stress how much he enjoyed being with the team and what a difficult decision it was for him.”

The 24-year-old former Parramatta NRL player did not play a match for the Waratahs, being named on the bench but not getting on against the Sunwolves earlier this season.

ADVERTISEMENT

That was as close as he came to making his Super Rugby debut, after playing three first-grade games for the Eels during a three-year stint at Parramatta from 2015-17.

Israel Folau is still considering his legal position amid reports he is also trying to resurrect his NRL career.

The dual international and Super Rugby’s all-time leading try-scorer opted against appealing his “high-level” breach of RA’s code of conduct, saying he had lost faith in the governing body’s ability to treat him fairly and lawfully.

He may still pursue the matter in court, claiming unfair dismissal by RA.

Gibson said he was not sure whether John Folau would ever play rugby again.

“We can all understand the loyalty he has to his family and to his brother and totally respect that position,” Gibson said, while de clining to speculate on whether or not John decision to walk away from rugby was an act of solidarity to Israel.

ADVERTISEMENT

– AAP

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
LONG READ
LONG READ Mick Cleary: 'Borthwick needs to have faith in Marcus Smith' Mick Cleary: 'Borthwick needs to have faith in Marcus Smith'
Search