David Pocock calls out Israel Folau on latest captaincy claims

Former Wallabies loose forward David Pocock has weighed in on the latest development in the Israel Folau saga.

The ex-Wallabies fullback is awaiting a legal fight with Rugby Australia over what he believes to be a wrongful termination of his multi-million dollar contract as a result of an Instagram post in April where he said "hell awaits" for gay people.

Earlier this week, Folau increased his compensation demands from $10 million to $14 million, claiming that he will now miss out on extra earnings that come with being captain of the Australian national side.

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Pocock, who has previously condemned Folau for his homophobic comments, told Fox Sports News that he didn't understand why Folau believes that he would have ousted incumbent Wallabies skipper Michael Hooper.

“I think Michael Hooper has been doing a great job and he’s contracted to the next World Cup so I’m not sure where Izzy’s getting that from,” he said on Friday.

Pocock's comments come after former Wallaby Peter FitzSimons brandished Folau's captaincy claims as "absurd", especially given that he was never named vice-captain.

“It just gets ever more absurd,” FitzSimons told TVNZ. “From a distance, I just thought, ‘What? Captain?’ … but Michael Cheika, who was the Wallabies coach of course, he moved through seven vice-captains.

“Now, if Michael Cheika had seven vice-captains and Israel Folau wasn’t one of them, I think by definition he was a very unlikely man to be captain.

“The last time Australian rugby had a fullback as captain was in 1980. It was Paul McLean, it was one Test, and after that the theory in Australian rugby was that fullback was too far from the main game to be the captain, so the tradition in Australian rugby is we don’t have a fullback as a captain.

“I find the claim absolutely absurd.”