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The news of Israel Folau’s possible move to France after the 2015 Rugby World Cup has been on my mind for a few days now.
Originally this article was going to include a few main ideas – my thoughts on Folau as well as the current Wallabies Test series and some quick hits on the New Zealand/England match up underway. But I started writing about the Folau situation and it got the better of me.
Points two and three never happened.
When news broke that Israel Folau – or his people – had spoken to Toulon about possibly moving to the south of France my initial reaction was something like, “yeah, that sounds about right. Can’t fault that desire.”
Why move and play for Toulon? I’ll hand the mic to Toulon rugby player, Matt Giteau’s Twitter account for a second.
Lunch view!!#toulon pic.twitter.com/4X7VDyUgsp
— Matt Giteau (@giteau_rugby) May 18, 2014
Seriously, who’d begrudge a man moving to play rugby in a place with that sort of “Lunch view”?
And given infamously-rich-in-rugby-circles Mourad Boudjellal, is also the owner of Toulon rugby club there’s going to be serious financial incentive to hauling his possessions over to that unsightly locale. Would $2 million do it? What about three?
Boudjellal is also the owner of comic publisher Soleil Productions, with prestigious titles such as “Les Carnets Secrets du Vatican” and “La Geste des Chevaliers-Dragons”.
Recently he also aired ambitions of adding a new real life super hero title to his list, the “Quatre Fantastiques”. Translated that means the “Fantastic Four”, so he’ll need to check with Marvel whether they’ll allow him to do anything with that in the English language.
But the idea of Toulon* going out and signing four of the best players in the world is certainly the next obvious step when your club side is already almost a World XV invitational – Johnny Wilkinson just retired and in his place they’ll be able to trot out Frederik Michalak, who’s barely played a game in over a month with the club because he’s just the French fly-half. He hasn’t even won a World Cup, so riding the pine was inevitable there.
Many people believed the targets would be the likes of Kieran Read, Richie McCaw, Dan Carter and perhaps another Kiwi addition. But the beauty of labelling his signings as the “Quatre Fantastiques” is there’s certainly enough ambiguity to mould the title to reality once the signings are completed.
Israel Folau as the finisher of the Fantastic Four of Toulon? Yeah that checks out:
And therein lies some of the problem. He’s that good and he’s literally only played about 40 games of professional rugby! You have to do what it takes to keep a guy like that.
He scored 10 tries in Tests last year, to tie Lote Tuqiri’s record. As in no one has scored more than that in a year before. And that was his debut year.
Again, this is crazy. I’m not even sure we give this guy enough credit for his skill. It feels like he’s admired but not celebrated enough.
During the Waratahs season many people were talking about Folau’s ‘scoring drought’. One that had spanned three matches before it was broken against the Rebels in Round 15. That’s not a drought – old men with noctirua can probably sleep for more minutes without peeing than Folau went without scoring.
It only had the feeling of a drought of sorts because of just how good Israel Folau is. By the time round six was finished and Folau was out injured for a while he had already crossed the line eight times this season.
And for those quick to mention he’s just lucky to be in the right spot at the right time or that he’s merely a finisher, Folau had run more than 100 metres three times in four matches. He has done so six times from 10 matches this year.
He’s just too important to let go.
And don’t get me wrong, I’m not the kind of person who’s going to advocate one person being more important that the whole team. That’s not true.
Folau cannot and will not win rugby games on his own. But he will do much more for his team to aid that goal than almost any player. Even bad teams find themselves inside the opposition 22-metre area a couple of times a game, and from there Folau is always a threat to score. Every. Single. Time.
Just this week Folau had a typically great game against France. The try he scored wasn’t all him but without him that wouldn’t have been scored. The Wallabies ran to a wide blind where Wycliff Palu and James Slipper did well to draw two men each before getting the ball to Folau.
However, Folau received the pass going sideways and with plenty of defenders flooding across the field. He calmly flicked a tackler off his ankles, turned the corner and powered through two more tacklers before dotting down. It was done so easily that it’s easy to forget we don’t have another player capable of making that play.
It was a great mix of balance, awareness and acceleration.
We haven’t even discussed his great angle to give Nick Cummins room to score or his scintillating run giving Pat McCabe a try with his first touch. Your boss is already getting suspicious, so I’ll skip those. Or his high ball defusing.
The thing is, Folau’s impact for rugby isn’t just felt on the pitch. He is an absolute lightning rod for the game.
Experts reckon Folau’s media exposure for team sponsors was worth up to $4million in 2013 alone. He is certainly a huge draw for the game in that sense.**
Some athletes are under paid no matter what they’re paid by their employers. Lebron James is a great example of this, and I think Folau could be so to rugby.
The power of a marketable brand is a huge thing for rugby. If the code was able to keep Folau on board it would be a building block for rugby to cross back into the mainstream of Australian sport. Currently rugby is largely on the outside looking in when it comes to casual fan interest and watercooler talk around the country. But already Folau is one of the rare crossover talents in the game.
He’s been here under two years but already people I know that don’t have access to Fox Sports and his Waratahs exploits eagerly await the chance to see Izzy play for the Wallabies. They weren’t let down by him last weekend and they rarely are, if at all.
Folau is a strong, quiet and hardworking man. He takes his professionalism seriously and doesn’t get himself into the wrong sections of the news. These are the kind of things that make him the perfect building block.
At the 2015 World Cup he will be 26-years-old. Keeping him in Australia until the next World Cup in 2019 will put him at only 30-years-old.
With the chance to further evangelism rugby around his cult following who knows how many extra fans would have been added to the game by then? How much more revenue could he bring into the code (and a portion of it for him) with his wider exposure?
Not to mention that Folau might have over 100 caps and 80 Wallabies tries by then, if his rate of scoring dips from where it is now.
We’re talking a cultural sign post in the history of rugby if Folau was kept in the fold until 2019.
John Eales, George Gregan, Tim Horan, David Campese and are the kind of comparisons for careers that Folau could have. But on top of that he could provide rugby the kind of mass appeal that no other player ever has.
This is Lote Tuqiri, Wendell Sailor and Matt Rogers rolled into one and multiplied many times over.
The NBA had Michael Jordan to give it the cultural cache required to finally pass baseball into the mainstream in the USA and onto the wider global stage. Athletics was given new life by the emergence of Usain Bolt. Football has Pele and Messi to capture the world’s imagination.
In Australia rugby could have its Israel Folau.
Rugby hasn’t particularly translated to the internet and it’s domains as well as other sports. But there are already more Folau videos on YouTube than almost any other player since he joined rugby. Tribute videos, highlights and interviews – they’re all there.
So, I can understand Toulon is an attractive proposition, again take it away Matty.
BBQ time… Drew Mitchell https://t.co/XG8IAmGiG4
— Matt Giteau (@giteau_rugby) April 23, 2014
– Giteau vine of view/bbq
And Australian rugby may well struggle to match the contract offer the French club can offer, but it is vital that everything possible is done to keep Folau in Australia.
I won’t stop following or believing in rugby if he doesn’t but stay, but I think it would be a missed opportunity the likes of which comes along very rarely for a fringe sport. If he stays, in 25 years we may well look back upon his period in Australian rugby as a crucial time when rugby grabbed its place in the culture again.
So, to the Tongan connection, with whom Folau has made a strong bond, please do everything you can to sell staying in Australia.
To the ARU, do whatever you can to give him a reason to stay, financially and otherwise.
Maybe if things really get dire a public kickstarter campaign could get this over the line?
*The position of Toulon rugby club as a whole is an interesting one right now. Some people would argue they’re doing their bit to ruin French rugby with their high profile signings taking up places that local talent might otherwise inhabit. Others would definitely say they are creating a new rugby tradition in the south of France, alongside many other old ones. But no one could argue that the profile of the club is now reaching a high mark worldwide. It has to be one of the most recognisable club rugby names across the globe now. Signing players from around the world, splashing the cash and promoting the lofty goals of its chairman has been steadily turning heads for years now. They’re a global rugby brand.
**Literally just as I typed that Israel Folau appeared on YouTube in an ad for Samsung and the Wallabies Series against France. I’m not even joking, I was just selecting a new writing soundtrack (don’t worry, this young pup isn’t listening to Iggy Azalea’s Fancy, I found a great live Pearl Jam full concert video) and there he was, an Izzy from Oz.
Join The Roar rugby editor Christy Doran, former Wallaby Matt Toomua and a cast of regular and special guests as they look at the biggest issues in the game on The Roar Rugby Podcast. If you’re looking for great odds on the next game check out Aussie bookmaker PlayUp. Chances are you’re about to lose. Set a deposit limit.