Chiefs wanted to sign Israel Folau and turn him into an All Black

ISRAEL Folau an All Black? It seems unfathomable for a Wallabies fan but the Chiefs once tried to lure him to New Zealand.

ISRAEL Folau was a shining light for Australian rugby in a tough 2013, but if Chiefs coach Dave Rennie had had his way the superstar fullback would have been tormenting the Wallabies instead.

Israel Folau was in the sights of the Chiefs.

It has been reported that the back-to-back Super Rugby champions contacted Folau in 2012 - while he was playing AFL with Greater Western Sydney Giants - about a possible code switch, and move across the ditch.

So interested were they in luring the former NRL star to New Zealand, the Chiefs investigated Folau's eligibility for the All Blacks.

"We just heard a whisper that he was maybe looking to get out of Aussie rules and looking to have a go at rugby," Rennie told Fairfax Media.

"We went over to have a chat to him in and around one of the Bledisloe Cup games. He's a good man and a hell of an athlete. We would have loved to have brought him over."

Folau was interested in moving to New Zealand, according to Rennie, but because he wasn't immediately eligible for the world champion All Blacks a deal didn't get off the ground.

"For him to come here (New Zealand) and be eligible for the All Blacks immediately, he needed to have some sort of parentage lines, and he didn't have that," Rennie said.

"He would have had to wait three years before he could play, from a residential point of view, so it was probably never going to happen."

Folau eventually signed with the Waratahs - after a deal with NRL club Parramatta fell through - at the end of 2012 and went on to star for the Wallabies in his debut season of rugby.