Spot on.

Eddie Jones is no saint. The England head coach loves to play mind games and by no means does he mince his words.

But that doesn’t mean deserved the vile abuse he received this past weekend. No one deserves that. No matter who they are. What happened the Australian in the words of the Scottish Rugby Union, was “disgusting.”

Former England international, turned pundit, Austin Healey, says it is bizarre to suggest Jones is fair game, and I have to agree with him.

Writing in the Daily Telegraph, Healy highlighted the huge difference between mind games and abusing a member of the public:

“I find the suggestion utterly bizarre that Eddie Jones is fair game for the kind of treatment he received at Manchester station because of the comments he might make in the build-up to a match.

“Those are purely mind games with the opposition to get the upper hand. He is not trying to abuse a member of the public. People who say that he gets what he deserves are talking complete rubbish.”

Healy says what we saw at that train station is rugby become closer to football.

“When rugby turned professional all the old-school characters were saying that it was the beginning of the end. What you are seeing there with the station incident is rugby becoming closer to football, in terms of the responses that members of the public are having towards teams and coaches.

“That is the exact reason why footballers have become more reclusive from society, because of similar situations. Why take the risk? It ends up then separating footballers from reality, from Joe Bloggs on the street who complains that footballers are out of touch with society. Those incidents are the reason why there is a detachment. There are some great characters out there in football, but they cannot take the risks any more to openly display that.”

You can read Healey’s piece in full here.