Bumbling Super League must pay the price for Israel Folau debacle

How relieved must the NRL be right now? The outrage in England over Super League’s Israel Folau admittance has reinforced their stance to block the cross-code star.

Israel Folau is returning to rugby league with the French club Catalans.

• Super League revolt over Folau signing

What did they think was going to happen?

The English Super League has got what it deserved following the decision to let Israel Folau sign with their France-based team, the Catalan Dragons.

English officials sensed Folau joining the Dragons would be a bit like bad boys Greg Bird and Todd Carney joining the same team.

Those two had bad form in Australia but, rightly or wrongly, they were offences no-one in France or England could really care much about.

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Catalans Dragons unveil controversial signing Israel Folau. Picture: Instagram

And if the players behaved themselves upon landing in France, which they did, they would care even less which they did as well.

But the Folau issue is different for morality is a global and all-pervasive force.

It crosses all borders.

When it comes to abrasive off-field conduct in a big-drinking, rebel-rousing sort of way, Folau is a behaviour cleanskin, but his anti-gay stance causes tidal waves of offence which stretch not simply beyond rugby league but sport itself.

Super League side Hull Kingston Rovers has “put the Dragons on notice’’ that legal action will follow if their club loses sponsors as a result of Folau’s signing. More clubs are expected to follow.

Folau playing for the Wallabies. Picture: Adrian Dennis/AFP

The outrage in England over Folau will only convince the NRL they made the right call in rejecting Folau’s bid for re-entry to the game in Australia.

Missing out on entering a float in this season’s Mardi Gras in Sydney after someone forgot to fill out the paperwork was one thing.

But welcoming someone who thinks gay people should go to hell would have been a nightmare at every turn.

It would have caused major upheaval not simply to the club Folau joined but the entire competition.

Super League officials claim they were powerless to stop Folau joining their league because he had not been found guilty of a criminal offence.

So in effect they are a governing body who don’t have the power to govern ... and now they must pay the price for it.