Bledisloe Cup: Wallabies fullback Israel Folau won’t be changing his aerial approach against All Blacks
FED up with losing to New Zealand year after year and having his own legacy questioned, Israel Folau says he’s willing to risk all to end the All Blacks’ Bledisloe Cup dominance.
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FED up with losing to New Zealand year after year and having his own legacy questioned, Israel Folau says he’s willing to risk incurring the wrath of petty officials by going into full attack mode when the Wallabies face New Zealand in the Bledisloe Cup opener.
Folau still hasn’t been given a proper explanation as to why he was slapped with a ludicrous one-match ban for his innocuous contact with Ireland skipper Peter O’Mahony in their June Test series but says he no longer cares.
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Folau is so confident his aerial attacks are within the rules of the game that he’s preparing to gamble the house that his hunch is right by going all-out against the All Blacks.
“I believe my technique is fair play,” he said. “I’ll attack the ball at every opportunity I get.”
Folau has the full backing of the Wallabies and expects to play in his preferred position at fullback, giving him the green light to launch his aerial assaults from any part of the field.
Wallabies coach Michael Cheika had hinted that he might switch him to outside centre but Folau effectively knocked that idea on the head, leaving Reece Hodge as the obvious candidate to wear the number 13 jersey after the season-ending injuries suffered by Samu Kerevi and Tevita Kuridrani.
“Well, I’ve been training at fullback so I haven’t been training anywhere else,” Folau said. “But whatever decisions that Cheik makes, it’s best for the team, but I don’t see myself playing any other position other than 15.”
Like the rest of his senior teammates, Folau is sick to death of losing to the All Blacks and knows he’s running out of chances to finally get his hands on the Bledisloe Cup and end New Zealand’s 16 years of gloating.
Even though Folau was part of the Wallabies side that made the last World Cup final, he knows there will always be a question mark about his and the team’s achievements until they knock their trans-Tasman rivals off their perch.
“It’s not rocket science that you definitely want to win it,” he said.
“Not only for myself but the rest of the squad and Wallabies fans in general, it’s been a pretty tough time when it comes to this time of year.
“It’s something as players you really get sick of being on the losing end of things but if we could win the Bledisloe back it will give not only the team great confidence but Australian rugby as a whole a great boost into backing the game in Australia.
“You want to leave something behind for the current players and for the players to come.”
Not that he needs any more incentives to help end the Wallabies’ dismal losing streak against the Kiwis, but there’s another possible big juicy carrot being dangled in front of the 29-year-old Folau when he comes off contract at the end of this season.
He has kept a relatively low profile in the lead-up to the Bledisloe after his controversial remarks on homosexuality earlier this year but wants to play at next year’s World Cup in Japan and has made no secret of his desire to go beyond that.
And following on from Michael Hooper’s announcement last week that the skipper has just signed a five-year with Rugby Australia that will take him through to the 2023 World Cup, Folau wants to keep all his options open.
“It’s obviously enticing, very exciting with obviously the group that we have here right now,” he said. “There’s no doubt that that’s something that I look at as well.”
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Originally published as Bledisloe Cup: Wallabies fullback Israel Folau won’t be changing his aerial approach against All Blacks
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