Rugby Australia's major sponsor has voiced their disapproval of Israel Folau's stance on gay beliefs.
Wallaby fullback Israel Folau sparked a firestorm of negative feedback after he commented on social media saying gay people were headed to "HELL...Unless they repent of their sins and turn to God' in response to a user on the platform.
Qantas is a vocal supporter of same-sex marriage in Australia and the major sponsor of the Wallabies. A spokesperson told foxsports.com.au that “as a sponsor of Rugby Australia, we’re supportive of their approach towards tolerance and inclusion, which aligns with our own. “We’ve made it clear to Rugby Australia that we find the comments very disappointing.”
Rugby Australia responded on Thursday that “Folau’s personal beliefs do not reflect the views of Rugby Australia”.
“Rugby supports all forms of inclusion, whether its sexuality, race, or gender, which is set out in our Inclusion Policy (2014),” Rugby Australia said in a statement.
Former Welsh international Gareth Thomas, the first openly gay professional rugby player, took a swing at Folau on Twitter following the controversial comments.
Former Wallaby Brendan Cannon also questioned Folau's views given the state of the issue Australia.
"It’s almost an ignorant perspective because we had a very expensive referendum recently in relation to marriage equality in Australia," he told Fox Sports Australia.
"Izzy now clearly puts himself in the minority of that group, but you’ve got to rate the fact that it’s his opinion and he backs it.
“But I question how he would be if it was his brother or sister or someone within his family that was a homosexual.
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well I guess we’ll see! I am actually a huge fan of Eddie Jones, but things went badly at the end with England, they went badly with Australia, and they’re not going great so far with Japan.
You’re right that he has kept abreast of trends in the game - arguably he has actually continued to predict trends ahead of them happening - but there’s more to coaching than just that. I wonder if he’d be best off in an analysis or consultancy role?
But yeah, you are right that the hiring boards will learn the lessons - I just think the lesson they’ll learn from the last few years of test rugby is that it is better to appoint younger managers! Obviously if Jones has a resurgence with Japan, and Mick Byrne continues to do a great job with Fiji, then people will learn from that - but at the moment that remains a hypothetical.
Go to commentsGod, no. Win ratio’s are a huge part of my considering him a better 7 than an 8.
I’m not remotely upset. I’ve even avoided the passive aggression of using emoji’s, like a real healthy adult.
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