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Wallabies coach Michael Cheika makes appearance at Israel Folau hearing

Michael Cheika arrives for Israel Folau's code of conduct hearing in Sydney in early May (Photo by Matt King/Getty Images)

Wallabies coach Michael Cheika has made an intriguing appearance at Rugby Australia (RA) headquarters in Sydney as Israel Folau fights to save his career.

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Folau’s high-stakes code of conduct hearing has been running for more than four hours after the three-times John Eales Medallist was issued with a “high-level” breach notice last month.

RA chief executive Raelene Castle threatened to tear up Folau’s four-year, $4 million contract following his latest round of inflammatory social media posts.

The superstar fullback took to Instagram to proclaim “hell awaits drunks, homosexuals, adulterers, liars, fornicators, thieves, atheists and idolators” unless they repent and turn to Jesus.

He had been warned last year following a similar post claiming gays were destined for hell, before signing a rich contract extension in October.

Cheika wasn’t expected to make an appearance at the hearing, and certainly not soon.

But after saying three weeks ago that he wouldn’t be able to pick Folau for Australia again “as it stands right now”, Cheika’s sighting on Saturday raised the prospect of a possible peace offering.

Folau arrived at the landmark hearing at 9am, his Audi piercing a posse of TV cameras, photographers and reporters as it made its way through to the underground car park.

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Israel Folau attending his code of conduct hearing in Sydney. (Photo by Cassandra Hannagan/Getty Images)

The dual international is being represented by high-profile solicitor Ramy Quatami and barrister Adam Casselden, who recently worked on the coronial inquest into the murder-suicide of Sydney family Maria Lutz and her children Ellie and Martin at the hands of their father Fernando Manrique in 2016.

Castle, along with NSW Waratahs supremo Andrew Hore, arrived shortly after, casually walking past the press pack and through the main entrance of the Rugby Australia building.

Sunday has also been reserved should the three-person panel of chair John West QC, RA representative Kate Eastman SC and the Rugby Union Players’ Association-elected John Boultbee require further deliberations on what shapes as one of the most significant legal battles in Australian sport’s history.

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Either way, RA has already declared the panel is not expected to deliver a decision on the weekend.

A final verdict could in fact take months or even years to reach, according to an employment law expert.

“There may be some kind of settlement between the parties,” said Giuseppe Carabetta, from the University of Sydney Business School, who described the complex case as a “perfect storm of conflicting religious, corporate sponsorship and moral issues”.

“But if it does end up in the ordinary courts such as the federal court, potentially, those matters can take months or even a couple of years.”

Folau’s team was expected to argue that RA did not include a specific social media clause in his new contract and that his posts were merely passages from the Bible and not his direct words.

RA, being represented by Justin Gleeson SC, was expected to claim that regardless of no such apparent clause, Folau seriously breached the governing body’s broader code of conduct policy and its inclusion policy.

If the tribunal determines that Folau has in fact breached his contract, the panel must then decide if the breach was severe enough to terminate his career.

The losing party will have until 72 hours after any decision is handed down to appeal.

AAP

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J
JW 21 minutes ago
How can Scott Robertson revive the All Blacks’ playmaking ‘triple threat’?

Love how you stoke up the fire with these slow burners Nick, great time to let the air into this one too coming into Jordies new home for a few months.


Razor (and possibly Cullen?) is the perfect coach to keep fueling Jordies own flame. Foster on the other hand has to be a people person because he's always trying to douse everyones due to his own lack of enterprise.


I didn't want to nark on the man but we still have Reiks waiting to be ignited as well. His own play when he first moved to center was full of threat and tact. He could cut in just as easily as swing out and had some great ball handling to put people away with. While we haven't seen much more of that since, I think he has at least been working hard on his defence and his books under Foster and Schmidt, and could turn into a Conrad (or even Nonu) one day. I'm not quite so sure Jordie has been making the same progress in the meantime.


I've been really happy with Jordies workons this year however, but that Final was a big learning curve and I've not really sure I've seen the calmness required to pull off Nonu type plays through his career so far. In fact he has often been the opposite and been a bit ropey when he was in more of a playmaker role at 15, I do think he has all the skills and desire to make these sorts of plays though, just having such a wide scope as a 'triple' threat put's a big demand on being able to read the game. So perhaps I might not go too much further than trying to use that big boot, and keeping it simple really. Like Nonu did.


I'm happy with all those 10 and 15 pictures myself, especially the ones where Jordan is playing more of a hand. He is someone who certainly could do with some sort of 'double' threat to help his line breaking ability and I certainly think he has some sort of innate skill to do the right thing. Sadly it's not going to happen in conjunction with Beaudie I don't think. This is going to be retirement. 2nd start back playing with his old courage (he actually did run the ball after all) and he's concussed again, not good.


Trouble is for this team, it could be a completely different 10, 12, 13. That shouldn't stop Razor from encouraging all the options the All Blacks have in those positions, right now. Also looking forward to Perofeta coming into fullback late instead of BB or Dmac going there.

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