Israel Folau has taken just six minutes to score his first try for Catalans as the controversial Australian received a warm reception on a victorious debut for the French-based Super League team on Saturday.
The ex-rugby union international, who was sacked by Rugby Australia last year for his homophobic comments on social media and whose switch to European rugby league has outraged many in the game, scored in his team’s 36-18 win over Castleford.
In his first rugby league match for a decade, Folau’s early try, after he had taken a high catch from a Josh Drinkwater kick, was met with cheers from the home crowd at the Stade Gilbert Brutus in Perpignan and he almost crossed for another just before halftime.
Dragons’ fans in the crowd of 8,886 chanted “Izzy! Izzy!” when Folau, playing in the centres, scored his try and he was mobbed by his teammates.
At the end of the match, 30-year-old Folau held up his hands to the crowd in appreciation before stopping to take selfies and chat with supporters.
One woman fan said she had been asked twice to remove a rainbow flag by home stewards but there were no organised protests over his Super League participation, which have been promised by supporters of other clubs when Folau plays in Britain.
“Firstly as I was told it was against health and safety. Secondly because it is against club policy,” Alison Grey tweeted.
Dragons coach Steve McNamara said he was pleased with the way his players had coped with the additional pressure.
“To have journalists from all around the world descending on this region, chasing players around in cars and following people and all the other bits that go with it, the players have had to deal with that and credit to them,” he said.
“The plan all along was to get Israel on the field and give him time.
“I understand the headlines but let him play, let him get on the field and we’ll understand the person a little more after that.”
While Folau hogged the headlines, England fullback Sam Tomkins scored three tries for the Dragons while their Australian five-eighth James Maloney ran the show, created a try and kicked six goals.
Former NRL centre Cheyse Blair was among the try scorers for Castleford.
Tigers coach Daryl Powell said his team was not distracted by the interest surrounding Folau’s appearance.
“I just thought it was a poor performance from us,” he said.
“Israel Folau is a top-line player, he’s dangerous, obviously on kicks and we found that out pretty quickly but that didn’t have any effect on the game, it was more a poor performance by ourselves.
“We had the same thing with the first game of the season against Toronto with Sonny Bill Williams but these things have nothing to do with the game. It’s all about us.”