Israel Folau’s Catalans Dragons teammate James Maloney bombarded him with gay pornography
- Israel Folau and James Maloney are team-mates at French team Catalan
- Maloney welcomed Folau to the players’ WhatsApp group with gay porn
- Folau lost rugby union contract after posting homophobic bible passages
- NRL team George-Illawarra backflipped after they tried to sign Folau
Devout footy star Israel Folau was spammed with gay pornography by an Australian teammate after his homophobic social media posts led to his Wallabies contract being ripped up.
Folau, 31, had his contract with Rugby Australia terminated in 2019 after claiming ‘hell awaits’ gay people in a now-infamous Instagram post.
James Maloney, who played with Folau for French rugby league team Catalan, reportedly then mischievously sent his teammate images of gay sex in a social media group for the team’s players.
‘I heard a cracking story,’ journalist Andrew Webster said on the Morning Glory with Matty Johns podcast.
Folau signed a new one-year contract with French club Catalans Dragons (pictured) in 2020 but returned to Australia after the birth of his first child in the summer
‘When Israel first joined Catalan [last year], he joined the players’ WhatsApp group and Jimmy Maloney, god love him, couldn’t help himself and just starting bombarding him with gay pornography.’
‘So I think that’s the only time [his views] actually came up.’
Maloney quickly earned the nickname ‘Jimmy the joker’ when he joined the French Super League team in 2019 and joked about struggling with the local language.
‘My wife and I went to the pharmacy to pick up a cold and flu remedy and I think we ended up with a packet of condoms, which is a bit late for us with four kids,’ he told local media.
St George Illawarra Dragons scrapped plans to sign Folau this month after a backlash over their decision to pursue the controversial footy star.
The NRL club issued a statement in early February confirming they were no longer in talks to recruit Folau, just one day after revealing they had formally applied for permission to add the 31-year-old to their player roster.
‘While the Dragons did enquire about signing Folau, the club can confirm that such discussions have now ceased,’ the club statement said.
In recent years, controversy has dogged the decorated Folau – a try-scoring machine who played for Australia in rugby league and rugby union and even played AFL at the top level – since his extreme religious views blotted his impressive copybook.
James ‘the joker’ Maloney served up the devout Israel Folau what must have been an uncomfortable welcome to the players’ WhatsApp group when he joined the Catalan Dragons
James ‘the joker’ Maloney (right) sent the devout Israel Folau what must have been an uncomfortable welcome to the players’ WhatsApp group when he joined the Catalan Dragons
After he posted bible verses perceived as homophobic on social media his contract with Rugby Australia was terminated in 2019.
Folau was widely slammed for suggesting that the 2019-20 Australian bushfires were somehow God’s judgement for allowing same-sex marriage and abortion.
In 2020 Catalan signed him on a one-year deal and he is listed in the 2021 Catalan first team squad.
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