Beale to learn fate on Friday

Editor

Kurtley Beale’s future in Australian rugby hangs in the balance ahead of his disciplinary hearing which will take place on Friday.

Kurtley Beale’s future in Australian rugby hangs in the balance ahead of his disciplinary hearing which will take place on Friday.

The scandal-prone Waratahs playmaker was officially overlooked for a place in the Wallabies’ November squad on Wednesday with ARU CEO Bill Pulver confirming that his participation in the end-of-year tour would depend entirely on the result of Friday’s hearing.

Beale’s code-of-conduct hearing over his in-flight confrontation and lewd text messages to former Wallabies Business Manager Di Patston will take place ten minutes after the Wallabies’ flight departs for Europe.

District Court judge Mark Williams SC will chair a three-person panel also featuring former Wallaby David Giffin and barrister Dominic Villa.

Giffin is representing the ARU, while Villa will appear on behalf of Rugby Union Players’ Association.

“I won’t be answering any questions on that today because there’s no way that I want to prejudice what’s going to happen with Kurtley on Friday,” said newly-appointed Wallabies coach Michael Cheika on Wednesday.

Pulver insisted that the timing of the hearing did not mean that the ARU had already deemed Beale guilty of any wrongdoing.

“Let me comment on the timing issue,” said Pulver.

“We had originally scheduled the tribunal to be held on the 13th of October.

“Kurtley’s legal team came back and quite justifiably said that they needed more time.

“It’s clearly longer than I think everybody would’ve liked, but it was really in response to request from his legal team.”