Land Rover take away flash car from Israel Folau

Land Rover have taken back their sponsored car from controversial Aussie rugby star Israel Folau.

The flash car was part of a $850,000 deal Land Rover had with Rugby Australia, reports the Sydney Daily Telegraph.

Land Rover, who said Folau was never an official ambassador, repossessed the car after Folau's anti-gay sentiments on social media.

In February last year Dan Carter was dropped as a brand ambassador for Land Rover following his drink driving incident in France.

Folau won't be catching the bus to Waratahs training any time soon though — he still gets around in style in his $500,000 Lamborghini, bought last year.

Land Rover's withdrawal of the car is the first financial hit Folau has taken for his fundamental Christian stance.

The 29-year-old Wallabies and Waratahs fullback followed up his initial comment with a video on Twitter warning that tolerance of homosexuality would be punished by God, but Rugby Australia has not sanctioned him due to the complex moral issues around free speech.

While RA disagrees with Folau, chief executive Raelene Castle said they also must respect his right to express his religious beliefs, adding that penalising him would alienate a large section of their Christian supporter base.

Meanwhile, Wallabies coach Michael Cheika says Folau would refrain from posting further inflammatory content for the sake of his teammates as they prepare for the three-test June series against Ireland.

"What's happened has happened, it's been dealt with now and it's not going to be ongoing, so it's not going to be an issue," Cheika told Macquarie Sports Radio.

"There's been a lot of conjecture on this on this from all different sides, left wing, right wing and all that type of stuff. But we need to be focusing on the footy, and getting ourselves clear on a big series against the northern hemisphere champions.

"I'm going to be reminding guys what the team is about, what it means to be part of the team and then guys make their decisions from there.

"He understands that he doesn't want to affect the team around those sort of things. And like I said, if it's not ongoing then it's not going to be an issue."

"Izzy wants to be part of the team, not just now but in the future as well. Some people think he's using it as some kind of tactic to get out of playing but if he wanted to go, he could go easily. He wants to play rugby."