'We're more than happy to have him': Tonga coach opens the door for Israel Folau to make rugby comeback
Tonga coach Toutai Kefu has revealed controversial former Wallabies star Israel Folau has expressed interest in returning to rugby union to play for the Pacific Island nation.
Folau hasn’t played union since he was sacked by Rugby Australia [RA] in 2019 for posting a meme on social media that said hell awaited “drunks, homosexuals, adulterers” and other groups.
Following legal proceedings that resulted in a confidential settlement between Folau and RA, the triple-code star moved back to rugby league by signing a one-season deal to play for the Catalan Dragons in the Super League.
Now back in Brisbane, Folau is currently a free agent across both union and league, and has been the subject of speculation about possibly turning out for Tonga at this year’s Rugby League World Cup in the United Kingdom.
However, the prospect of the 32-year-old returning for a second stint in union is still alive as Kefu told RNZ Folau has been in contact about playing for the ‘Ikale Tahi.
“He’s Tongan, he’s a bloody good player – we’re more than happy to have him and accommodate him… We’d have no concerns,” Kefu said about the prospect of the 73-test Australian international playing test rugby for Tonga.
“We all grew up the same way. We all went to Sunday School and then there’s different divisions of religion that we all grew up in. We certainly all support Israel and his views.”
The switch in allegiance wouldn’t come without its complications, though, given the unlikelihood that Folau would be able to land a professional contract in Australia.
Whether any clubs or franchises outside of Australia would be willing to take the utility back – who can cover fullback, wing and centre – onboard remains to be seen, but what is certain is that any nationality change wouldn’t happen immediately.
Folau last played for the Wallabies in November 2018 and needs to complete a three-year international stand down period before being eligible to play for another country that he holds a passport for.
That stand down period won’t be completed until November this year, four months after the Final Olympic Qualification Tournament in Monaco.
The tournament, scheduled for the weekend of 19-20 July, acts as the final opportunity for players to switch international allegiance until the next Olympic cycle.
Hurricanes hooker Dane Coles has called on his teammates and coaches to be honest and up front on what is going wrong for the lowly Wellington franchise this season. #SuperRugbyAotearoa https://t.co/7zg7CgBCWM
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) April 6, 2021
After that, the next window for Folau to crossover from Australia to Tonga would be at the 2023 Oceania Sevens Championship, at which point he would be 34 and would have missed the 2023 World Cup in France.
Former All Blacks utility back Charles Piutau is facing a similar predicament as he continues to work towards switching his allegiance from New Zealand to Tonga.
While the 17-test international hasn’t played a test match in six years, his commitments to his club side, Bristol Bears, could prevent him from taking to the field for the Tongan sevens side in Monaco.
Bristol are currently 12 points clear at the top of the Premiership standings and are highly likely to be involved in the competition’s semi-finals, which are scheduled for the same weekend as the Final Olympic Qualification Tournament.
Tonga Rugby Union chief executive Peter Harding last week expressed doubt over Piutau’s availability for the tournament, but Kefu remains optimistic about coming to a resolution with Bristol.
“It’s unfortunate about Charles. We still haven’t got the exact date of the tournament and there may be an option of maybe flying Charles in just for the day or day and a half to maybe just qualify him and get him on the field,” Kefu said.
“I know he’s got finals time around that time so we still haven’t ruled him out.”
The Red Hurricanes missed an opportunity to join Kobe and Panasonic with five wins each. https://t.co/ZW3oHvzxv2
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) April 6, 2021
Kefu added Kiwi star George Moala, who played four tests for the All Blacks between 2015 and 2016, is another player he is keen on, but as his club, Clermont, is expected to qualify for the Top 14 play-offs, there is uncertainty about his availability as well.
“There’s George Moala as well who’s at Clermont and they look like they’ll be in the midst of finals as well around that Monaco tournament.”
However, early indications of ex-All Blacks midfielder Malakai Fekitoa taking to the field for Tonga in Monaco are promising given his side, Wasps, are languishing in ninth place and aren’t expected to make the Premiership’s top four.
That would make the 28-year-old, who played the last of his 24 tests for New Zealand in 2017, free to play sevens for his nation of birth in July.
“Malakai is probably the only high-profile player that we know that looks like going to the tournament – we’re still in constant discussions with him,” Kefu said.
Tonga will compete against the likes of France, Ireland, Samoa, Zimbabwe, Brazil, Chile, Hong Kong, China, Mexico, Jamaica and Uganda at the tournament in Monaco for the final place at this year’s Tokyo Olympics.
The men’s Olympic sevens tournament is scheduled to take place between 26-28 July and will be held at Tokyo Stadium, the venue that staged eight matches – including the opening match and three play-off matches – at the 2019 World Cup.
Comments on RugbyPass
Looking forward to the Wallabies being competitive again. No doubt that Joe can get them back on track.
1 Go to commentsThanks, Nick, not only for this fine article, but for all the others during 6N 2024. I really enjoyed this 2024 tournament, and felt it was one of the best for many years. That final match in Lyons was really good. England were certainly unlucky when that speculative hack by Ramos lead to a French try. It could just so easily have landed in English hand.s, and they score at the other end. I did think though that the French played some great rugby, and some of their driving play in the forwards was just fearsome. I watched Meafou with interest, and he has a good start to his career. It is interesting to compare him with Will Skelton. Lot of similarities, though so far Meafou has not shown any offloading threat. All credit to Borthwick for being prepared to change, and what great result, even if that last game was lost at the death. I feel they are a real chance to cause the AB’s problems this winter/summer. Finally a comment on Ireland. I thought their last game was their worst, and they did not look like the world’s No 2 side at all. What really worries me is that the loss to England was, in my view, down to poor decision making by the coaching group, and ofc Andy Farrell wears that. It was a big mistake to move JGP away from scrum half. Murray should have been the one to go to the wing. And the “finishers” should have been on the field earlier. And this is the second time this has happened. The RWC Qf against the AB’s, and not getting Crowley onto the field was a huge mistake. Finally, finally, watching Italy play was a joy. How wonderful that they are no longer the punchbag of the 6 N.
41 Go to commentsGreat story. Rugby needs new investment in teams like Brussels another pro league in Europe would be great.
1 Go to commentsAlso, looking at the data from last year, it seemed like by far the two biggest predictors of success were (1) kicking more than your opponents, and (2) having a higher rate of line-out wins than your opponents. I haven’t gone through the stats this year with a fine tooth comb, but the increase in kicks per game and the increase in tries from lineouts would suggest that these two metrics are only getting more important. England’s move away from a kick-heavy game to win against Ireland was seen by some as evidence that running rugby is on the rise. Alternatively it could be taken as evidence that if one team kicks more, and the other team wins more lineouts (as England did) a match is bound to be close to a draw.
2 Go to commentsI have been finding it odd that points per 22 entry has become such a talked about stat, given that your points per entry can be driven down by having more entries. These data would seem to confirm that it isn’t a useful metric, or at any rate is less useful than total entries.
2 Go to commentsI think the last two games England have played is some of their best rugby they have played under Borthwick. There has been a lot more attacking instinct and as a reward have created some well worked tries. Ollie Lawrence is a good foil at 12 as he offers the hard direct lines whilst the rest of the backs can play open. As much as it pains me to say but I do hope England keep playing this way. On a side note my favourite try of the weekend was Lorenzo Pani’s for the nice loop play that put him away and his finish was excellent. Thanks as always Nick.
41 Go to commentsMost exciting player on the planet right now, worth the price of a ticket.
1 Go to commentsBen Smith and Ireland live rent free in Safa’s heads. Their comments only triggers because its true. If the Boks had dismantled a 14 man AB’s, then there would be more respect. But they didnt, in fact quite the opposite, the 14 man NZ were clearly better. And the Bok have always been ordinary between RWC’s, thats why their supporters are now ‘only RWC’s matter’. They know thats BS. Its BS to both AB’s and Bok’s due to their history. But now its all the Safas have. Now we’ll hear excuses when they lose “oh we didnt have all our players available, the ABs/France/Eng/Irel were at full strength”, forgetting for a minute that its because of their own dumb policy. Oh well, makes a change from blaming ‘cheating refs’.
23 Go to commentsNo Nick, they did not, in fact, justify any ‘probables’ label. At no time did they seriously compete for the championship. Ireland led from start to finish and in the end, as a result of glaring referee errors, were never under serious pressure to lose their crown.
41 Go to commentsMoney for him, and his family, has been the sole motivator since he signed for Queensland aged 17. Why else sign for Melbourne. Tupou is poorly advised. If he’d stayed and developed in NZ he would have had a long Test career. If Leinster offer him a few more coins than he’s currently earning, he’s goneburger.
4 Go to commentsFinn. No one would say Ford had played well up until the last game. One standout performance in 5 is hardly in form . It should be a given that a 10 will control play . Not in Fords case be praised for suddenly doing so. Where was he against Scotland ,Italy. The pundits were saying how far away from play he was standing and one even said that the Ireland game was his last chance saloon to perform . Not exactly top form catching anyones eye. If he can play like this game after game then great. Keep him in . But after 90 odd caps we all know he just doesnt keep it going . By all means keep him there but the issue is that Borthwick will persist even when he plays poorly. Which is more often than not. Thats why i am concerned that Smith ,despite fab form , cannot get a game at his preferred spot. Can you imagine Ford at full back .
5 Go to commentsI do not really get why put Ollivon at 6 when he’s a 7, while Cros was the best Frenchman of the tournament, playing at…6. His only game replacing Aldritt at 8 doesn’t change much in terms of his impact. Lamaro was also outstanding in that brilliant Italian side, probably better than Reffell. So putting 2 Welsh players from the wooden spoon holders, and none of the 4th nation (Scotland) is also strange. Is it about showing that in this harsh transition Wales is, there were some standouts…?
6 Go to commentsThe events at this year’s six nations should undermine many of the arguments made against promotion and relegation between the six nations and the REC. If Italy had been allowed to yo-yo between divisions it conceivably could have really hurt their development, but if Italy, Wales, and Scotland are all at risk of relegation, with none of them being relegated more often than once every 3 or 4 years, you’d have to back all of them to muddle on through it, especially when you factor in the likelihood they’ll still be guaranteed world league matches against tier 1 opponents. Another way of looking at italys resurgence would be to say that the development model of adding an extra team to the six nations has worked, and now must be done again. Georgia could join to make it a 7 team round robin, and if and when Georgia demonstrate an ability to consistently win games, Portugal can also be added to make it an 8 team 2 conference competition. Frankly at this point I think it falls to world rugby to demand that the 6N act in the interests of the game. If the 6N won’t commit to expansion then the 6N teams should be handicapped in world cup draws (i.e. world cup seedings would not be based on their ranking points, but on their ranking points minus a 5 point penalty).
6 Go to commentsSteve Borthwick deserves credit for releasing the shackles on his England side and letting them play in a manner that somewhat resembles the top sides in the Gallagher Premiership. Will they revert to type in New Zealand in July.?
41 Go to commentsJames Lowe wouldn't get in any other 6N team. He's a great example of Farrell’s brilliance, and the Irish system. He is slow. His footwork is poor. But he fits perfectly in that Irish system, and has a superb impact. But put him in another team, and he'll look bang average.
6 Go to commentsCrusaders reached their heights through recruitment of North Island players, often leaving those NI teams bereft of key players. Example: Scott Barrett and Sam Whitelock robbed the Canes of their lineout and AB locks. For years the Canes have struggled at lock. This rabid recruitment was iniated by rule changes by a Crusader dominated NZR Head Office. Now this aggressive recruitment has back-fired, going after young inside back Hamilton Boys stars. They now have 4 Chiefs region 10s and not one with the requisite experience at Super level. Problems of their own making!
2 Go to commentsOver rated for a long time…exposed at scrum time too.
4 Go to comments“Firing me” should have been Gatland’s answer.
2 Go to commentsFinn Russell logic: “World” = 4 countries. Ireland may be at or near the top. FR’s bigger concern should be he and his fellow Scots (incl. the Bloemfontein ones) sliding back down to below top 10
42 Go to commentsMind games have begun. Ireland learned their lesson after saying they could beat England with 13 players or whatever. Still, if they win at Loftus, that would be impressive - final frontier etc.
58 Go to comments