Israel Folau axing a positive for inclusivity, Raelene Castle says

In an awkward interview, the rugby chief criticised Folau for putting his views before the sport.

Rugby Australia CEO Raelene Castle. Picture: Getty Images

Rugby Australia CEO Raelene Castle says sacking Israel Folau was a “positive thing” for inclusivity as she criticised the former Wallabies star for putting his views before the sport.

Folau is suing Rugby Australia for $10 million in lost and future earnings after he was sacked over posting on social media that homosexuals were going to hell. He is defending the posts as “biblical teachings” and argues he was unlawfully dismissed because of his religion, which is prohibited by section 772 of the Fair Work Act.

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Ms Castle said Folau chose to breach his employment contract and sacking him was a positive thing from a culture perspective.

“Rugby Australia were strong in the stance that his public views were unacceptable and then stood up for a culture which is about inclusiveness,” she told ABC on Wednesday.

“Making sure everybody that plays rugby, whether it’s working at Rugby Australia, whether it’s playing the game, or whether it’s being seen as welcome inside Rugby Australia. It’s a positive thing from a culture perspective.”

Ms Castle said Folau’s comments were unhelpful and distracted the public from the game.

“I certainly don’t think its helpful for a player to put their views in front of the team and we end up with headlines and people writing things about Rugby Australia as opposed to writing about the Rugby. That’s never helpful.”

Former Wallabies star Israel Folau. Picture: AFP

Folau is the leading tryscorer in Super Rugby history and the fourth highest all-time tryscorer for Australia, and a three-times John Eales Medal winner.

Coach Michael Cheika sensationally quit after the Australian team crashed out of the Rugby World Cup at the quarter-final stage with a 40-16 loss to England on Saturday.

Cheika has revealed he had no working relationship, which Ms Castle confirmed this morning.

She said it stemmed from changes made in response to poor performance from the Wallabies, including the appointment of Scott Johnson as director of rugby.

“We had to make some changes at the end of last year, we had a 50 per cent win record, that was not acceptable from the board’s point of view,” she said.

“We needed to make some changes to ensure we saw improvement in Wallabies performance.

Ms Castle said the changes were made to support Cheika.

“At the end of the day that decision was made to support Michael into the Rugby World Cup [and] to give him all the support that he could have to enable the Wallabies to put their best foot forward,” she said.

Castle defended the decision to allow Johnson to carry out a review into the failed Wallabies campaign.

When asked, “Why even have the review,” Castle replied: “Could I just finish, could I just finish.

“Because actually the point is that there was a review last year. What we’re talking about is a campaign review to look at why the campaign was not successful.”