SCOTTISH Rugby yesterday branded the verbal abuse directed towards Eddie Jones as “disgusting behaviour” and said it could not have contrasted more vividly with the way England’s head coach and his team conducted themselves following their Calcutta Cup defeat on Saturday.
While members of the Scotland camp indicated earlier this week that their victory has not been tarnished by controversies surrounding the match, the way in which Jones was harangued by a group of Scots as he travelled by train from Edinburgh to Manchester, partly captured in mobile video footage and subsequently released on social media was of a very different order. It shows a bizarre exchange in which Jones clearly agreed to pose for selfies with a group of Scots then, after he broke off from them, was then subjected to profanities and personal abuse as he got into a waiting car.
Jones has now indicated that he will avoid public transport in future, even expressing concern for his personal safety.
“I try and do the right thing by the fans but if that happens then you’ve got to have a look at your own safety. I never knock back a request for a selfie unless I’m racing to somewhere. I did a lot,” he subsequently explained.
“For me to travel on public transport, I thought was OK. I’m a human being. I don’t consider myself any different from anyone else, but I’ll make sure I won’t in future. It’s as simple as that. I can’t, because it was shown on Sunday what happens when I do.”
Responding to the revelations, Scottish Rugby issued a statement which read: “Scottish Rugby is appalled by the verbal abuse suffered by Eddie Jones. The disgusting behaviour of those involved does not represent the values of our sport or its fans. The dignity Eddie and the England team showed on Saturday is in stark contrast to this ugly incident.”
Jones has also been quoted as addressing issues that appear to relate to comments made from within the sport when observing: “If you’re in a position of responsibility, you’ve got to be careful what you say. Because if you talk about hate and you talk about rubbing peoples’ noses in the dirt, and all those sorts of things, it incites certain behaviours. Are they the sorts of behaviours that we want to see?”
That observation has been aligned to comments made by New Zealand-born Scotland prop Simon Berghan who had spoken about the “hate” felt for England and a more personalised observation attributed to former Scotland captain Gavin Hastings saying he admires Jones but “as a supporter of one of his opponents, you just want to rub his face in the dirt.”
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