Star fullback Israel Folau signed a new three-year contract with the Australian Rugby Union (ARU) yesterday that will give him the flexibility to play in Japan or elsewhere during the off-season.
The union said that the new deal — of which financial terms were not announced — will see the 26-year-old Folau play for the New South Wales Waratahs in Super Rugby and the Wallabies until the end of 2018.
Folau, who previously played rugby league and Australian rules football, switched to rugby union for the 2013 season.
Photo: Reuters
He has since played all 29 Tests for Australia in the past two seasons, scoring 17 tries, and is expected to be a key member of the Wallabies at the World Cup later this year in England and Wales.
The union said Folau had a “flexible” contract, which would allow him to play overseas outside the Super Rugby season or when not required for Wallabies Test duty.
“I’ve already had so many great moments and experiences in rugby over the past few years, but I feel like I am still just scratching the surface of what I am capable of,” Folau said in a union statement.
ARU chief executive Bill Pulver said signing Folau on a long-term deal was significant for the code in Australia.
There were reports of interest from National Rugby League teams in Australia and rugby sides in France.
“There is no denying Israel’s extraordinary talent on the field, but equally impressive is the way he represents himself and the game off the field,” Pulver said.
“Rugby as a whole will benefit immensely from Israel’s ongoing presence in the game,” Pulver said.
Folau played rugby league from 2007 to 2010 with the Melbourne Storm and Brisbane Broncos in the NRL, and appeared in eight rugby league internationals for the Kangaroos.
He made his first code switch when he joined the Greater Western Sydney Giants in the Australian Football League for the 2012 season. However, his foray into Australian rules football was not successful and he moved to the Waratahs the following season, helping New South Wales win the Super title last year.
Folau became the first player to top a season’s try-scorers’ list in both Super Rugby and the NRL.
He scored 12 tries last year with NSW, while he touched down 21 times for Melbourne in the 2007 season.
RECORD DEFEAT: The Shanghai-based ‘Oriental Sports Daily’ said the drubbing was so disastrous, and taste so bitter, that all that is left is ‘numbness’ Chinese soccer fans and media rounded on the national team yesterday after they experienced fresh humiliation in a 7-0 thrashing to rivals Japan in their opening Group C match in the third phase of Asian qualifying for the 2026 World Cup. The humiliation in Saitama on Thursday against Asia’s top-ranked team was China’s worst defeat in World Cup qualifying and only a goal short of their record 8-0 loss to Brazil in 2012. Chinese President Xi Jinping once said he wanted China to host and even win the World Cup one day, but that ambition looked further away than ever after a
‘KHELIFMANIA’: In the weeks since the Algerian boxer won gold in Paris, national enthusiasm is inspiring newfound interest in the sport, particularly among women In the weeks since Algeria’s Imane Khelif won an Olympic gold medal in women’s boxing, athletes and coaches in the North African nation say national enthusiasm is inspiring newfound interest in the sport, particularly among women. Khelif’s image is practically everywhere, featured in advertisements at airports, on highway billboards and in boxing gyms. The 25-year-old welterweight’s success in Paris has vaulted her to national hero status, especially after Algerians rallied behind her in the face of uninformed speculation about her gender and eligibility to compete. Amateur boxer Zougar Amina, a medical student who has been practicing for a year, called Khelif an
Crowds descended on the home of 17-year-old Chinese diver Quan Hongchan after she won two golds at the Paris Olympics while gymnast Zhang Boheng hid in a Beijing airport toilet to escape overzealous throngs of fans. They are just two recent examples of what state media are calling “toxic fandom” and Chinese authorities have vowed to crack down on it. Some of the adulation toward China’s sports stars has been more sinister — fans obsessing over athletes’ personal lives, cyberbullying opponents or slamming supposedly crooked judges. Experts say it mirrors the kind of behavior once reserved for entertainment celebrities before
GOING GLOBAL: The regular season fixture is part of the football league’s increasingly ambitious plans to spread the sport to international destinations The US National Football League (NFL) breaks new ground in its global expansion strategy tomorrow when the Philadelphia Eagles and Green Bay Packers face off in the first-ever grid-iron game staged in Brazil. For one night only, the land of Pele and ‘The Beautiful Game’ will get a rare glimpse into the bone-crunching world of American football as the Packers and Eagles collide at Sao Paulo’s Neo Quimica Arena, the 46,000-seat home of soccer club Corinthians. The regular season fixture is part of the NFL’s increasingly ambitious plans to spread the US’ most popular sport to new territories following previous international fixtures
RSS