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All Blacks star makes strong statement against former teammate Israel Folau


Angus Ta'avao. (Photo by Hannah Peters/Getty Images)
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All Blacks and former Waratahs prop Angus Ta’avao has made a statement of support for the LGBT community in the wake of the Israel Folau saga by wearing rainbow-coloured bootlaces in the Chiefs’ Super Rugby clash against the Lions in Hamilton on Friday.

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Ta’avao’s choice of bootlaces comes a week after Folau made controversial posts on Instagram and Twitter which condemned gay people to hell.

Angus Ta’avao wears rainbow-coloured bootlaces in support of the LGBT community against the Lions in Hamilton. (Photo by Hannah Peters/Getty Images)

The Wallabies and Waratahs star is currently fighting for his career after Rugby Australia CEO Raelene Castle and New South Wales Rugby Union chief executive Andrew Hore stated their intentions to terminate his multi-million dollar contract, before going on to issue the 30-year-old with a contractual breach notice.

Ta’avao, who has played three tests for the All Blacks since making his debut last year and played alongside Folau during his two-year stint with the Waratahs during 2016 and 2017, was joined by Chiefs teammate and one-test All Black Brad Weber in wearing rainbow laces during their side’s 23-17 defeat at Waikato Stadium.

Weber has previously voiced his disapproval of Folau’s sentiments on Twitter when he made similar posts about the LGBT community that landed him in hot water in April last year.

Other All Blacks have since come out in support of the LGBT community following Folau’s comments last week, including Hurricanes halfback TJ Perenara.

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The All Blacks wore rainbow-coloured bootlaces in their final test match of 2018 against Italy during their end-of-year tour in November, joining forces with several other international teams in a declaration of support for the LGBT community.

Watch – Daryl Gibson speaks ahead of Rebels clash:

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Phantom 1 hour ago
Nations Championship: 'The data shows the north has finally caught up with the south'

Fact: the gap between the North and the South has narrowed considerably - that I get. However, determining that only selecting only Home grown players or playing in the home country is is the optimal strategy is a bit of a toss up and highly reliant on the economies of the home union. I do understand that England and to a lesser degree Ireland selects home based only. The top 14 is a massive threat to their domestic product. France would probably not be affected (the money is at home). Fiji, Argentina, Samoa, Italy and you could even argue Scotland have only benefitted from this. Their players either go overseas to learn at higher levels (Fiji, Samoa, Argentina) or players coming into their leagues to strengthen the home product and their National teams (Scotland, Italy, Japan).

South Africa used to limit its selection to the home based players, but the reality of a weak currency vs what players could earn oversees meant that you lost access to your best players at some stage of their careers, with very few exceptions. Kolbe left SA as he was considered too small for International Rugby (yes coaches/selectors view), but ironically in France he forced selectors to notice his endeavors and select him. He is only reaching 50 caps now despite being north of 30 - granted rotation and the odd injury also played a role, but for the most part it is having debuted or becoming a regular so late.



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