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Pretty hard to swallow the line he took on diversity and marrying that to not taking the fight to Folau. Even further off the mark is Nick's claiming that the financial support offered to Folau's legal case constitutes evidence of "wider community support". The mistake was in not taking a very much stronger line when constructing his contract extension, once he had public form on the board. The jam they found themselves was a result of that alone.
Catalan Dragons learned from it, reportedly included such clauses, and the hypocrite rolled over his unbreakable principles once again and signed for the money lickety split.
To be honest, I thought their mistake was to recontract him on the same sort of money. He only mattered because he was a 'face' for the game, so what they should have said was "Here is the money for playing, and that hasn't changed. But we can't use you for promotional work any more, so X% of your contract has gone by your own hand. Your sponsors will no doubt let you know their thoughts themselves in due time." In essence, he could still play if he wanted but the effect on his value should have been made plain and then leave it to his call...
Interesting that Kepu and Kerevi both wrote affidavits supporting Folau and wrote that they weren’t happy that individuals within the squad didn’t support Folau, went with the establishment which meant they couldn’t express their own beliefs and team harmony was affected.
They weren’t happy that players who had been in trouble with the law retained their contracts. A thinly veiled swipe at Hunt, Beale, O’Connor and Latu. Latu was four times over the limit and asleep at the wheel. Rewarded with Wallaby caps and a RWC squad place.
Both players went overseas and Kerevi was willing to give up the Reds captaincy and future caps.
The RA now still has an outstanding seven figure bill that needs to be paid to their solicitors. They hired senior counsels and rented out offices for the code of conduct hearings. Expensive.