Rugby Australia responds to Israel Folau's decision to take legal action

Rugby Australia and the Waratahs have moved to clarify the reasoning behind the decision to terminate Israel Folau's contract after the former Wallaby launched legal proceedings against the union.

In a statement, Folau's lawyers said that under the Fair Work Act, it was unlawful to terminate employment on the basis of religion.

"No Australian of any faith should be fired for practising their religion," Folau said in a statement. Full Story

However, Rugby Australia have since released their own statement outlining the reasoning for the termination of his contract. The statement reads:

“Rugby Australia and the NSW Rugby Union made the decision to pursue the termination of Israel Folau’s contract because of a serious breach of the Professional Players Code of Conduct.

“This is an issue of an employee and his obligations to his employers within the contract that he signed. He was bound by a Code of Conduct for all professional players in Australia that spells out clear guidelines and obligations regarding player behaviour, including respectful use of social media.

“An independent panel, having sat for 22 hours and heard testimony from several witnesses and reviewed over 1000 pages of evidence, determined that Israel’s conduct constituted a high-level breach of the Code of Conduct and ordered termination of his playing contract.

“It is important to make clear that Rugby Australia and NSW Rugby did not choose to be in a position where they are forced to divert significant resources to defend the ongoing legal action taken by Israel, but his action leaves the game with no choice.

“As a sport that is proud of the values of inclusion, passion, integrity, discipline, respect and teamwork that underpin our game globally and our Code of Conduct, we will defend those values and the right for all people to feel safe and welcome in our game regardless of their gender, race, background, religion or sexuality.  

“We are grateful for the support from so many people from within our Rugby community, including the volunteers who are the guardians of the game’s values, from other sports and from the wider community here and around the world, who have supported our stance.

“We will remain focused on getting on with the job of building our game, supporting our teams, encouraging more people to play Rugby and upholding the values that generations of Wallabies and Waratahs have represented with pride."