Social media, when Eddie Jones started coaching in the 1990s, meant a post-match beer with the bloke from the Sydney Morning Herald. Twitter was something that galahs did in the morning and when he graduated in 2001 to the position of Wallaby head coach precisely no one asked for a selfie. Phones were for talking to people, not pointing at celebrities.
Fast forward to 2018 and the grim video snapshot of modern British life filmed in Manchester last Sunday. There is Jones, doing the decent thing and posing for a swift photo before heading to Old Trafford to meet up with Sir Alex Ferguson. And then, all of a sudden, there he is surrounded by four increasingly aggressive strangers, taunting him about England’s Calcutta Cup defeat. Regardless of your nationality or sporting preference, the footage makes depressing viewing.
No wonder Jones looked slightly shaken and Scottish Rugby reacted with such a swift, strongly worded statement. “Appalled” and “disgusting” featured high up, along with words of praise for the conduct of the England squad in defeat.
“The dignity Eddie and the England team showed on Saturday is in stark contrast to this ugly incident” was the generous conclusion. If ever there was an important time to extend the hand of fellowship across Hadrian’s Wall, this was it.
And just maybe, in the longer term, Jones’s brush with the less-than-fab four will prove a blessing in disguise if it shames those who previously imagined it acceptable to harass a 58-year-old man in a public place in broad daylight.
While Sunday’s unsavoury episode had its roots in sporting rivalry it should make everyone stop and reflect on what kind of society they want to live in.
To argue Jones was asking for trouble because he did not travel in first class is to miss the point spectacularly.
Clearly it could have been worse; thankfully he was not physically injured. The Australian was not being stalked by men with premeditated violence in mind. But we should all listen when Jones talks of not wishing to travel on public transport again and wonders aloud whether some of the jingoistic sentiment expressed in sections of the media before the Calcutta Cup fixture contributed to Sunday’s incident.
Is rugby union, among other sports, doing enough to prevent hatred and bigotry flourishing beneath the banner of tribalism? Or is sport simply a reflection – warts and all – of the wider world encircling it and undeserving of any special treatment?
Both are treacherous societal minefields. Nationalistic oval-ball friction, in particular, is far from a new phenomenon. The former England captain Will Carling has tweeted about being “spat on when I left Edinburgh after 1990” in the wake of another famous English defeat. Sir Clive Woodward made Douglas Jardine look positively popular by comparison in Australia 15 years ago, while Warren Gatland understandably took exception to some of the barbs dished out to him on last summer’s Lions tour.
It is equally worth keeping in mind it is not always the stars who find themselves on the receiving end. The former Welsh internationals Gavin Henson and Andy Powell have had their issues on trains and golf buggies respectively; the ex-Lions scrum-half Mike Phillips was once photographed being sat on by a bouncer outside McDonald’s in Cardiff at 3am. England’s 2011 World Cup campaign, culminating in Manu Tuilagi’s dip in Auckland Harbour, was hardly a monastic retreat.
Rugby’s divine right to play the holier-than-thou card, in other words, evaporated long before Owen Farrell and Ryan Wilson started tangling in the Murrayfield tunnel before Saturday’s game or several members of the French squad were quizzed by the authorities following a messy night out in Edinburgh.
“The disgusting behaviour of those involved does not represent the values of our sport or its fans,” said the Scottish Rugby statement. Perhaps not but nor is rugby the tweedy amateur sport it once was either.
Even Jones has been known to dish out a few verbals in his time, if only for tactical or psychological reasons to those he suspects can take it.
Of course that does not remotely excuse the coarse treatment to which he has just been subjected but, to some, that seems to make him slightly fairer game. Drawing the line between acceptable sporting “banter” and unacceptable personal abuse would also be far easier if it was not being crossed a million times each hour by so-called sports fans on social media.
Hopefully, though, the Jones case will prove a turning point of sorts. If not, we will edge further towards the worst possible scenario: Six Nations games with segregated fan seating; English supporters being escorted to Cardiff station under the protection of uniformed police; total separation between athletes and coaches on one side and supporters and media on the other?
How unimaginable that would be. Next time you see Eddie, regardless of whom you support, be nice to him.
