Wallaby centre Samu Kerevi has accused Rugby Australia of stopping Christian players from publicly supporting Israel Folau.
The 73-times capped Australian international was sacked by the governing body for posting on Instagram that “hell awaits” gay people.
His contract was cancelled in May 2019, leading to a long-running legal dispute with RA which was eventually settled in December that year.
Kerevi was one of those to ‘like’ the initial post from Folau and claimed that those who agreed with the former Wallaby full-back were prevented from publicly voicing their support.
Told by media teams
“We got told from our media teams not to say anything about supporting Izzy or saying anything at all,” he told news.com.au.
“But after those coming days it was everyone that didn’t support him was all over the news. They were to be interviewed. They were allowed to say that they don’t support the message.”
Kerevi was speaking ahead of a documentary which is set to air in Australia later this month about the Folau saga.
Rugby Australia have always stated that they have not silenced players, but Kerevi believes that there is a certain amount of hypocrisy in the way Folau was treated.
“If someone does domestic violence and he’s OK to play, but someone that’s posted something that was in the Bible, no, let’s not play on,” he said.
Rugby Australia’s support for LGBTQ+ people
Rugby Australia showed their support to the LGBTQ+ community by creating a rainbow version of the Wallabies logo, a move Kerevi says they did not discuss with the players.
“No one came up to us and asked us if we support it,” he added.
“You know, no one asked us our opinion on it. They just said, you know, Rugby Australia supports gay marriage.”
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