Israel Folau’s signature ‘hugely important' to Rugby Australia

Rugby Australia chief executive Raelene Castle insisted it was “hugely important” to rugby that it re-signs Israel Folau.

Rugby Australia chief executive Raelene Castle takes questions from the media about Israel Folau yesterday. Picture: AFP

Rugby Australia chief executive Raelene Castle insisted it was “hugely important” to re-sign Israel Folau as the opening round of talks with the Wallabies fullback over his anti-gay social media posts passed without any threats or promises from either side.

Folau and his manager Isaac Moses met Castle and Waratahs boss Andrew Hore yesterday in a meeting designed to give both parties the opportunity to exchange views. Folau left having given no commitment to stop or even moderate his use of social media to spread his views on homosexuality, but nor did Castle give any commitment that sanctions would not be imposed at a later date.

“This is not a simple issue,” Castle said. “It’s a difficult issue when you think you are trying to combine religious beliefs, freedom of speech, inclusion, respect and the use of social media. You try to bring those things together, that’s a difficult place for this to be and, interestingly, I know there will be a lot of other sports out there looking to see how this plays out, to see how we work through this particular issue.”

No doubt other sports will indeed be sizing up rugby’s response to the vexed problem arising from Folau’s response to a question on Instagram in which he was asked what was God’s plan for homosexuals. His reply: “HELL, unless they repent and turn to God.”

Indications are, however, that they would have been quietly impressed by the manner in which Castle took the heat out of the situation, bought herself and RA more time and also left the way open for a non-confrontational solution to the problem.

But other sports weren’t the only interested and involved onlookers, with Australian rugby’s major sponsors, Qantas, Asics and Land Rover, indicating that they found Folau’s comments polarising to such a degree that they were considering withdrawing their support if they continued.

“I think that’s the conversation we have had with Qantas,” she said. “Alan Joyce (Qantas CEO) is very clear they have an inclusion policy, it is about every one of their employees living towards that and working towards under their employment contract to make sure that no matter what race, creed, colour or gender you at that you feel welcome working for Qantas. And that is certainly the aspiration that rugby has. We want it to be a family where everyone feels welcomed and everyone can be respected and that’s fundamentally what a sport like rugby has to be.”

The complication in all of this is that while rugby is dealing with the ramifications flowing from Folau’s beliefs and how he expressed them, it is simultaneously attempting to fight off interest from rugby league as it attempts to re-sign him.

“We’re in negotiation with Israel to extend and we would really like him to stay in rugby, that’s hugely important to us,” Castle said. “He has delivered some great outcomes ... and we would like to see that he stays in rugby. But we also realise that he is in demand and there are going to be other people trying to move him. So we’ll certainly be trying to make sure we put our best foot forward to make sure he stays in rugby.”

At the moment, indications are that Folau — who is understood to be on a seven-figure annual salary from RA — is probably out of the NRL’s reach but if relations, for whatever reason, turn sour with rugby and Moses is unable to play the two codes off against each other, Folau’s price would tumble.

Castle did reveal that Folau had regrets about whether he had chosen the right message to get across his religious views.

“Even Israel acknowledged that maybe he could have put the positive spin on the same message and done it in a less disrespectful way and that’s exactly the type of conversation that we had. He understands that he has caused some people some grief over this,” she said. “He is a very religious man who’s proud of what he stands for. He wants to see everyone live in a positive world and he just needs to find the way to share those views in a constructive way.”