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Former Australia fullback Israel Folau is confident he could still make an impact for the Australia national team at the age of 35.
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The 73-cap Wallaby was famously sacked by Rugby Australia in 2019 and has since gone on to have another stint in rugby league before returning to rugby union with Japan’s Urayasu D-Rocks and switching his allegiance to represent Tonga.
Folau’s playing credentials were of course not the reason why he was dismissed in 2019- he was at the time one of the premier players in world rugby, let alone Australian rugby. Since then, the Wallabies have experienced a downward spiral and now languish in ninth place in the World Rugby rankings.
While Folau has not reached the giddy heights he experienced at his peak of becoming Super Rugby’s top try-scorer (a record since broken) or being the Wallabies’ talisman, he still helped Urayasu D-Rocks earn promotion to Japan Rugby League One Division 1 this year. That is not to say that he is no longer an international-level player, but, now in his mid-thirties almost two decades after making his NRL debut at the jaw-dropping age of 17, he is perhaps not the world-leading player he once was.
Joining former New Zealand rugby league international Isaac John on the Ebbs and Flows podcast recently, the former NRL and AFL star was asked if he believes he could “walk back into the Wallabies and make an impact?”
“I think I could, that’s just my mindset,” was Folau’s response.
“If I got given the opportunity to go into that changing room and put on the gold jersey again tomorrow, I think I’d fit straight in.
“I’m not being arrogant or anything, it’s just the confidence and the mindset that I have about being there.
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“I don’t like to look down on certain players, I know the challenge of what it’s like to play at an international level. I’m 35 now and been around for a bit of time, but the mindset and the hunger’s still there as when I was 17 and just coming into the NRL.”
Given the bleak position Australian rugby finds itself in currently, there may not be many who actually disagree with Folau.