Nobbs was speaking about the upcoming referendum on building into the constitution an Indigenous Voice to parliament. By the end of the same day,he had faced a firestorm of feedback from Brumbies’ fans,players and other stakeholders,with one club executive characterising it as “world war three”.

Rugby is not the only sport that has taken time to communicate a position on the Voice but it is the only one with recent experience of what can happen when sports rush to do the trendy thing — or the right one — but don’t do their due diligence first.

If there is still polarised opinion around what RA should have done when Folau started publishing the most controversial aspects of his conservative Christian beliefs on social media — that homosexuals were going to Hell — it is easier to draw lessons from the year preceding the acrimonious breakup,and how poorly the internal communications were handled in the aftermath.

RA backed the Yes campaign in the 2017 same-sex marriage plebiscite with limited consultation. Then-Wallabies breakaway David Pocock and Michael Hooper backed the move in public,butFolau dissented in a Tweet widely regarded as a respectful expression of his position.

It was the beginning of the end of Folau’s career in Australia,the fork in the road where Rugby Australia,a self-styled progressive,inclusive international sports brand,left behind a large portion of its professional players. A year later the organisation was weathering a storm as fierce within as without.

It will not make the same mistake again,apparently. While only one RA director,Pip Marlow,remains on the board from that time and none of the senior executive remain,it is hard not to view the sport’s go-slow approach as a reaction to Folau.

It would not be a stretch to posit that every sport,as well as large sections of corporate Australia,has internalised the lessons from those two drawn-out years of legal argument and turmoil. The case endedwithout answering the central legal question but it shone a light on what can happen when a sport fails to bring along its most important assets,its players.Manly’s pride jersey fiasco did the same thing,three years later.

As sports administrator and former players’ union boss Greg Harris,the man who brokered Folau’s move to rugby 10 years ago,used to say,“when you’re ahead of the pack it pays to look back once in a while to make sure the pack is still behind you”.

Nobbs,drawing a leaf from former prime minister John Howard’s book,is old-fashioned in his views on sport and politics. There is a generation younger than him that is comfortable recognising the political in everything.

They are holding sway,but they should also not fool themselves that governing bodies and corporations are only doing what is right when they take positions on social issues.

They are also doing what will grow their bottom line or please their own paymasters which,in the case of sporting organisations,are often state and federal governments. While Nobbs’ comments whizzed around rugby’s corridors of power,one official remarked to this masthead:“The Brumbies have just stuffed their stadium negotiations. Why should[ACT Chief Minister] Andrew Barr support them intheir top priority (a new stadium in the centre of Canberra) if they won’t supportone of his?”

Every governing body that has backed or will back the Yes campaign has made a calculation that their position carries minimal commercial risk and a good chunk of potential upside. If it’s also the right thing to do,they’ve hit the trifecta.

Which brings up the glaring fly in Big Sport’s feelgood ointment:sports gambling. When the AFL,NRL and Rugby Australia wean themselves off that teat,their credibility will improve.

Georgina Robinson appears as an interviewee on theFolaudocumentary.

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