Israel Folau

Israel ‘Isileli Folau (; born 3 April 1989) is a professional dual-code rugby player who plays as a fullback for Japan Rugby League One club Urayasu D-Rocks. Born in Australia, he represents Tonga at international level after qualifying on ancestry grounds.

Folau began his professional career playing rugby league. Representing the Melbourne Storm in the National Rugby League (NRL) from 2007 to 2008, where he broke the record for most tries in a debut year. He then played with the Brisbane Broncos from 2009 to 2010. Playing as a or , Folau represented Queensland in the State of Origin and Australia, becoming the youngest player to play for both teams. In 2020, Folau played for the French rugby league team the Catalans Dragons in the Super League.

In 2011, Folau joined the Greater Western Sydney Giants in the Australian Football League (AFL) and played for two seasons. In December 2012, Folau announced he was to switch codes again, this time for rugby union, and signed a one-year contract with the Waratahs. He would later become the record holder for the most tries scored in Super Rugby history post the 2019 season. At international level, he made his debut for Australia in 2013 against the British & Irish Lions, and went on to earn 73 caps. In 2022, Folau switched allegiance in order to represent Tonga after World Rugby announced its new eligibility laws.

Folau's statements about homosexuality brought him into conflict with the administrators of Rugby Australia, and in 2019 they terminated his contract. Alleging that Rugby Australia terminated his employment on the basis of religion, Folau commenced proceedings in the Fair Work Commission but was unable to reach a settlement with Rugby Australia. He subsequently commenced proceedings in the Federal Circuit Court of Australia and a confidential settlement between the two parties was released on 4 December 2019. Provided by Wikipedia