{"id":158643,"date":"2025-09-21T10:59:13","date_gmt":"2025-09-21T10:59:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/158643\/"},"modified":"2025-09-21T10:59:13","modified_gmt":"2025-09-21T10:59:13","slug":"clermont-release-wallaby-folau-faingaa-just-weeks-into-top-14-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/158643\/","title":{"rendered":"Clermont release Wallaby Folau Fainga\u2019a just weeks into Top 14 season"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>ASM <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/teams\/clermont\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Clermont<\/a> Auvergne have confirmed that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/teams\/australia\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Australia<\/a> hooker Folau Fainga\u2019a will leave the club after their upcoming <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/top-14\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Top 14<\/a> clash with Montpellier.<\/p>\n<p>The 38-cap Wallaby has been released from his contract at the request of Rugby Australia in order to rejoin the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/teams\/waratahs\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Waratahs<\/a> ahead of the 2027 Rugby World Cup, which will be staged in Australia.<\/p>\n<p>Fainga\u2019a, who signed a one-year extension with an optional extra season last term, asked to leave early to maximise his chances of being part of the next World Cup cycle.<\/p>\n<p>Clermont boss Christophe Urios said he was informed of the plan in August, with confirmation only arriving late last week.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe cannot oppose Folau\u2019s desire to play in a World Cup in his own country and keep him against his will,\u201d Urios said in a statement released by the club. \u201cI need to have all the players in my team 100 per cent involved in the project.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe understand his decision and acknowledge it; it is something unique in the life of a sportsman and we wish him success. Now, the management of our season is our priority and the club is working on a replacement solution that will lead to the arrival of a new hooker as soon as Folau leaves.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Clermont added that a replacement signing will be confirmed following the international break.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ASM Clermont Auvergne have confirmed that Australia hooker Folau Fainga\u2019a will leave the club after their upcoming Top&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":158644,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,760,85],"class_list":["post-158643","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-rugby","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158643","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=158643"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158643\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/158644"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=158643"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=158643"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=158643"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}