Friends, Aussies, rugby followers, lend me your ears

Israel Folau.

I don’t want to overdo the Shakespeare stuff, but it was Mark Anthony, re the tragedy of Julius Caesar, who uttered the words that should resonate with Rugby Australia.

“Oh judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts and men have lost their reason. Bear with me.”

Indeed. The judgment being exercised by the rugby administration is obviously predicated on the belief that the Folau affair will go away.

Those running the game are either ignorant or indifferent; that is, they don’t know or they do know and don’t care.

You see, endless scarce resources are being used to condemn, vilify and misrepresent anything associated with Israel Folau, as public momentum builds inexorably against RA.

I understand it even has a journalist dedicated to “bagging” anything Folau says in order to protect the untenable position of the administration.

MORE: Folau sets up GoFundMe page

MORE: ‘No religion clause in contract’

In November last year, the Federal Minister for Education announced an independent review into freedom of speech within universities.

It was undertaken by the Hon Mr Robert French AC, former distinguished chief justice of the High Court of Australia.

Among the conclusions delivered by Justice French was the assertion that freedom of lawful speech is a “paramount value” and that students and staff do not need to be protected from being offended or insulted.

As I have said, week after week, the rugby family understand this; the administration doesn’t.

Last week, your response to my column was unprecedented.

On this newspaper’s website, on which only subscribers can comment, there were 1330 comments; on this newspaper’s Facebook page there were 1438 comments; on my own Facebook page, where the story appeared, more than a day later, there were a further 586 comments.

David writes: “A good first step to resolving the Folau problem would be for Qantas to get rid of Joyce as he is putting the whole country offside.”

“H” wrote: “Interesting that in both the social media post, and the sermon, someone had to be actively following Folau on social media or in the church where he was preaching. The choice is surely to ‘unfriend’ from social media or walk out of the church if you don’t agree; but it looks as though some people were actively trying to find something on Folau …”

James: “Tonight I threw out my Wallabies and Waratahs gear. They do not deserve any support given their inhumane actions.”

Peter: “Alan, thank you for keeping this very important issue in the spotlight. The administrators of our national rugby team and national airline are seeking to impose on Australia an intolerance of uncomfortable views that diminishes the national character. Australians are tough enough to deal with views they don’t agree with and don’t need to be ‘protected’ by this hypocritical mob.”

Michael writes: “I’m one of those ex Rugby followers who will no longer attend a game or watch it on TV. I am very unimpressed with RA who should have had the gumption to tell Qantas the posts did not reflect RA’s beliefs and that no action against Izzy was proposed as he was expressing a personal view independently of RA. The clots!!”

Peter: “What staggers me is how idiotic RA are, all for 30 pieces of silver from a sponsor. What don’t they understand about freedom of speech? Is Raelene Castle up to the job? In fact, are any of the Board up to the job or are they just digging their snouts further into the sponsorship trough.”

Craig makes the point ­expressed by thousands: “Go Folau … take RA for everything you ­deserve”.

Well, I can assure you Israel is not about money.

He’s about principle.

The Fair Work Commission has asked RA to sit down with Israel Folau on June 28 to see if the parties can reconcile their differences.

Breaking bread is unlikely if RA is taking orders from its sponsor, Qantas, which seemingly wants Folau permanently out of the Qantas Wallabies.

Worse, it wants him out of all rugby for life.

Now we have the almost unbelievable proposition that the Israel Folau saga has, allegedly, delivered the NSW Waratahs, and its ­organisation, a season of abject grief.

You have this New Zealand CEO, Andrew Hore, buying into it, arguing that the controversy has put enormous pressure on the ­organisation.

And according to Hore: “I look at the effect it has had on us commercially and through the business, because you’re not just talking about the competition or the team.”

Is there a sinew of rugby in any of these people who are running the game, that thinks of anything other than the commercial consequence?

Can someone admit that this so-called saga began with the ­abrupt and irrational response by administrators to a social media post about a young man’s religious beliefs that would never have been noticed had it not been raised by administrators.

Because of this irrational response, the game is falling apart.

NSW, in Super Rugby, is the ­ultimate manifestation of the mess.

In a 15-team competition, they finished 12th. Queensland finished 14th, ­second last.

And the Melbourne Rebels 11th.

Forget Israel Folau.

On those results alone, if we were a fair dinkum commercial outfit, the administrators would have to go.

Queensland are second last but their coach was re-signed before a ball was kicked this year.

NSW, fourth last, and their coach was signed for next year ­before a ball was kicked.

Presumably, none of these people are accountable.

Instead we see the Wallaby coach putting in a phone call to the gifted rugby schoolboy, now State of Origin league star, Kalyn Ponga about playing for the Wallabies.

Get the drift?

Folau’s gone, the money is freed up.

Spend it on Ponga.

All this is as if everything ahead in relation to Folau will be plain sailing and one-way traffic for RA.

It seems no one is telling the ­administrators the courts might see things differently.

There may be no money left for Ponga who has admitted anyway that whatever rugby instincts he has left steer him towards the All Blacks.

If we were momentarily to forget Israel Folau, how does RA ­answer the fact the Melbourne Rebels surrendered 125 points in the past two games; or, if you combine the scores of the Melbourne Rebels and the Waratahs in the last game alone, the Kiwis have beaten us by 108 points to 20. No player wants to be identified with such abysmal failure.

Off the paddock, the same story has unfolded.

Bernard Foley, Quade Cooper and Christian Lealiifano are off to play in Japan.

Will Skelton, Sean McMahon, Joe Tomane, Taqele Naiyaravoro and James O’Connor are already in the northern hemisphere.

They’ll be joined by David ­Pocock, Henry Speight, Sam Carter, Rory Arnold, Adam Coleman, Nick Phipps, Sekope Kepu, Curtis Rona, Scott Higginbotham and the Queensland captain Samu Kerevi.

Is that a vote of confidence in Australian rugby?

Who was the bright spark who insisted that Super Rugby provinces rest players for a World Cup that is months away; and in so doing, demoralising the significant talent available to us; and turning the scoreboard into a visual nightmare.

How is any sponsor or broadcaster going to come to rugby to endorse this mess unless there is a complete clean-out of those running the game?

Of course anyone with honour presiding over this catastrophe would put their resignation on the table.

Believe me, a financial tsunami is on its way for RA.

The new broadcast deal with Fox Sports could see the governing body scrambling to cut costs further.

If this happens, the Rebels and the Brumbies will be under ­extreme pressure from the Grim Reaper, aka Cameron Clyne.

We’ll become a banana rugby republic and like the Pacific ­Islands, Argentina and South Africa, we will be nothing more than a breeding ground for players bound for the big European and Japanese clubs.

RA is still without an attack coach for the World Cup.

The former Randwick player, Shaun Berne, is the pea for the job; but, unfortunately, he’s currently working with the Rebels who have coughed up 120 points in the past two games.

The attack coach they booted out, Stephen Larkham, is also off to the northern hemisphere, to join the very successful Munster Rugby.

It gets worse, if that is possible.

If, as it is clear, there is no judgment among the administrators to deal with the Israel Folau affair or as Mark Anthony argued in Julius Caesar, “Man has lost his reason,” how on Earth will this incompetent administration, with limited respect on the international stage, deal with the any proposed World Rugby concept, such as the so-called Nations Championship?

World Rugby is understood to have offered £5 billion ($9.2bn) to the 12 possible competing nations over the course of 12 years before the concept fell over yesterday.

While some countries are saying there must be more to consider than just the financials; that the ­integrity of the game, at all costs, must be preserved; RA, which has sold its soul to Qantas for $4 million a year, will do anything to get its hands on the cash.

The game, sadly, is, at best, secondary. If money isn’t the primary focus, why would RA have embarked on this relentless, punitive, defamatory and utterly destructive attack on Israel Folau?

Mark Anthony was right. The game, under the current administration, has lost all reason.