As one who has followed the issues closely since Folau first disgraced himself by putting up a post endorsing the view that gays are destined for hell, and who has written and ranted about it extensively, I am more aware than most of the damage he has done, the hurt he has caused. In the 21st century, his homophobic gibberish – you heard me – simply has no place. And it is no excuse that the gibberish in question is sourced from the Bible. I was hoping the court would confirm that, hence the dissatisfaction.

It was for that reason my first reaction on hearing the news – and I write in the first few minutes thereafter – was the settlement was, firstly, a great pity. Secondly, my stronger reaction was I hoped RA kept the presumed payment to him to an absolute minimum. Everybody wants to know how much. I have no inside knowledge of the terms, not even a hint, but my bet is it will be about $200,000 to $300,000. RA was confident its case was a slam-dunk legally. It had ample evidence he had made a legal commitment to not put up damaging posts again, and that this was a matter of a broken contract. RA never wavered in its view it had no choice but to sack him, and had evidence for that, too. Since being sacked, Folau has continued to lose support due to his ongoing outrages, such as linking the bushfires and drought to Australia's backing of same-sex marriage.

So with all that, why settle?

Because if it was a relatively small amount, a couple of hundred grand or the like, it would be worth it to finish the agony, stop the legal bills and allow RA to focus exclusively on the game again.