Ex-coach 'aggressively confronted' amid Folau saga
Former Wallabies coach Michael Cheika says he was "aggressively confronted … many times" by members the public during Israel Folau's homophobia controversy that dogged Australian rugby.
Folau lost his Australian contract in 2019 after he posted a social media post saying "hell awaits" "drunks, homosexuals, adulterers, liars, fornicators, thieves, atheists, idolaters", unless they repent.
The first episode of a two-part ABC documentary entitled "Folau" airs on Thursday, covering his rise and fall in what is labelled "a complex and sad" saga.
Previews to the media have revealed just that in interviews with Cheika, Wallabies centre Samu Kerevi, former Wallabies No.8 Toutai Kefu, academic Jioji Ravulo, the Folau family's former Mormon bishop Salesi Tupou and gay Christian pastor Andre Afamasaga, among others.
Cheika, who was coach of the Wallabies at the time, said the controversy hit his squad hard.
"That was a really difficult time for the team. Really difficult," Cheika, now coaching Argentina, said.
"I was confronted in the street aggressively, many times by people. I imagine that was happening to players as well."
Kerevi revealed the divisive force of the situation, with pressure applied to players.
"We got told not to say anything about supporting Izzy or saying anything at all. But everyone that didn't support him was all over the news," Kerevi told the documentary.
"They were interviewed. They were allowed to say they didn't support the message.
"People are going to court for whatever, and they're not getting sacked. If someone [commits] domestic violence he's OK to play, but someone that's posted something that was in the Bible, no, let's not play on."
Documentary director Nel Minchin felt it was a delicate story, but one that needed to be told.
"Ultimately it's a very sad story," Minchin told The Guardian.
"It cost (former Rugby Australia CEO) Raelene Castle and Michael Cheika their jobs, derailed the Wallabies' 2019 World Cup campaign, cost millions of dollars in legal fees and bad press, and left a lot of innocent people cowering in a corner for all the hate speech it unleashed.
"I don't want to reopen old wounds ... we've taken so much care and time to achieve the opposite. But the issues this case brought into the light are even more relevant today, so it's time to revisit the firestorm and have the conversation."
From a playing perspective, Folau, who scored 37 tries in 73 tests for the Wallabies, survived the scandal, getting a large settlement from Rugby Australia and going to France in 2020 to play rugby league.
He returned to rugby in the lucrative and increasingly popular Japanese club scene last year, and subsequently represented Tonga at the Pacific Nations Cup after World Rugby relaxed its eligibility rules.
He seems certain to play for Tonga at this year's World Cup in France.
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