Rugby: Land Rover reportedly seizes sponsored car off Israel Folau over controversial social media posts

  • 18/05/2018
The British motoring company was reportedly furious with Folau's comments.
The British motoring company was reportedly furious with Folau's comments. Photo credit: AAP

Rugby Australia might not have punished Israel Foalu for his controversial anti-gay comments on social media, but one of his sponsors has.

According to the Daily Telegraph, Land Rover confiscated a complimentary car it had given the Wallabies fullback within a week of his offensive post.

Land Rover gave the dual code international an automobile after signing on to be Rugby Australia's car sponsor in February as a part of an AU$850,000 (NZ$928,527) deal.

Folau posted that gays were destined for hell on April 2 and the car was repossessed only a week later.

Land Rover said they disagreed with Waratahs star's views and claimed he was never an official ambassador for the company.

The post was the first of many from the 29-year-old which sparked outrage.

Folau followed up his initial post with more content supporting his views, with a video warning that tolerance of homosexuality would be punished by God.

But Folau probably isn't too sad about the deal as he still drives around in his Lamborghini, purchased with his own money.

Wallabies coach Michael Chieka also confirmed that his star player wouldn't be posting any more inflammatory content as preparation begins for the upcoming three-test series against Six Nations winner Ireland.

"What's happened has happened, it's been dealt with now, and it's not going to be ongoing, so it's not going to be an issue," Cheika told Macquarie Sports Radio.

"There's been a lot of conjecture on this from all different sides, left wing, right wing and all that type of stuff. But we need to be focusing on the footy, and getting ourselves clear on a big series against the northern hemisphere champions.

"I'm going to be reminding guys what the team is about, what it means to be part of the team and then guys make their decisions from there.

"He understands that he doesn't want to affect the team around those sort of things. And like I said, if it's not ongoing then it's not going to be an issue."

"Izzy wants to be part of the team, not just now but in the future as well. Some people think he's using it as some kind of tactic to get out of playing, but if he wanted to go, he could go easily. He wants to play rugby."

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