Peter FitzSimons slams Israel Folau’s “absurd” claims
Peter FitzSimons has laid waste to Israel Folau’s claims he could have captained the Wallabies to a World Cup win.
Earlier this year, Folau was let go from his contract with Rugby Australia for anti-gay comments made on social media, and is in the process of demanding $14 million in damages, further claiming he could have been a Wallabies skipper
The star lodged an updated statement of claim in the Federal Circuit Court, where he has upped his compensation demands from $10 million to $14 million.
Former rugby star turned journalist and author FitzSimons has laid waste to Folau’s claims and has Gina step further to slam his “worrying” beliefs about gay marriage and bushfires.
“It just gets ever more absurd,” FitzSimons incredulously 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.”
FitzSimons said he and a current Wallaby team member, who he decided not to name, discussed Folau’s captaincy claim and the player “burst into laughter”.
"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,” FitzSimons said.
“I find the claim absolutely absurd.”
Folau made headlines again recently for claiming Australia’s bushfires, which took six lives over its tenure, were a result of legalising same-sex marriage and abortion - a claim FitzSimons has labelled as worrying.
“It doesn’t have the closest grip on reality and I worry about that kind of stuff,” he said.
“If he actually believes that, then I respectfully submit his remaining friends need to sit him down, give him a hug and say, ‘C’mon mate, we’ve got to get you some help here. This is not real’.”
Folau said his contract termination will cost him $4.2 million from 2019-2022, as well as $300,000 in match payments from 2019-2021.
He also has made claims he stood to make up to $1.5 million a season with an overseas club for two-to-three years when his contract with RA was up.
Lost sponsorship dollars, the missed revenue of competing at World Cups and the possibility of captaining the national team were also used to justify the controversial star’s new $14 million demand.