Israel Folau and the political football

‘Keep rugby out of politics’. It’s a well-known adage that in a pub, it’s best to never discuss two things: politics and religion.

Why? Because the camaraderie that we like to share over a pint of beer can so easily evaporate and turns to fists. Conventional wisdom is age old.

Not coincidentally it happens that a major nexus of the rugby game is the pub. It’s where friends gather to support their teams and to share a yarn. Hence the boundless advertising dollars that beer companies sink into football.

Sadly though the poison of politics has been slipped into the rugby drink. More and more it seems that simple and innocent games are being tainted by political campaigns. Last year the ARU announced, prior to the same-sex vote, that it was for the ‘Yes’ Campaign.

Shortly thereafter the RFU announced that it would support the Stonewall Foundation ‘Rainbow Laces Campaign’ to ‘tackle homophobia’. Both unions peddle the notion that rugby needs to be more ‘inclusive’. The line goes that people who practise homosexuality would otherwise be bullied or pushed out.

So what about rugby Christians? Or Muslims? Or Hindus? Or even secularists who simply are not interested in another person’s sex life, who only want to experience the joy of running and catching a ball?

These people of faith account for billions worldwide, with huge potential to grow the game. Now that Israel Folau has spoken out, he represents the deeply religious diaspora of Polynesian and Melanesian people who dearly love rugby, and who were fine before politics.

But maybe rugby politics is nothing new. Who could of course forget South Africa, and the apartheid boycott? Almost the entire world banded together in the 1980s to make a stand. For it was clear-cut when race was involved – after all, you can’t change your race.

Concurrently, some people claim that sexuality is not a choice. Yet the faithful believe that this is ridiculous, and are happy to say so, just as atheists are happy to say that God is not real. Because sexuality crosses over into a lifestyle domain, the same as religion, whereas Cultural Marxism is simply a power struggle.

But back to South Africa – 20 years on we’ve all witnessed the catastrophic demise of South African rugby, when Marxism out shouts plain equality. These exploits have been well documented, where attempts at ‘transformation’ have effectively reversed discrimination, with the best players often overlooked so that the sport can be more ‘inclusive’.

Or shall we take America, in a sport thankfully removed from rugby? Nearly everyone in the sporting world must be painfully aware of the politics that have engulfed the NFL. Whether you prefer Trump, or Black Lives Matter, one thing is certain: the game has suffered for it.

Attendance figures have tumbled, and so has TV viewership, with all the advertising dollars that come with it, all because the average citizen is fed up. Do we want this for rugby?

Or what about me, a man who loves rugby, who grew up with the sport and shared it with my father and mother and friends? I am now considering a split from rugby over politics. My faith (guess which one) determines that I must make a choice.

I’ve already cut three rugby websites – Rugby Heaven, Rugby Stuff, and Planet Rugby – for their respective articles about the ‘The Gay Bledisloe Cup’, or their unceasing promotion of rainbow laces. I no longer watch English Premiership Rugby, and I may well soon cut the ARU.

So maybe someone’s happy. Someone may think, ‘Good riddance’. We don’t need another bigot; rugby is the better for it. Well yes, but I can get my fix from Fijian rugby, or Japanese, or anywhere untainted with politics. And I can easily retort that Stonewall, and the ARU are bigoted towards people of faith.

I can even assert that it smacks of a desperate attempt to gain attention for struggling brands. And when I push back, I too will rally support, and take others with me, perhaps with effects as damaging to rugby as they were to the NFL. All because of a political football.