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Rugby Australia has threatened to ban a football fan for yelling abuse at England coach Eddie Jones on Sunday night. Next thing you know, they will ban star players for quoting the Bible.

Oh wait. They already did that.

A fan yelled, “You’re a traitor,” at Jones after England defeated Australia 21-17 at the Sydney Cricket Ground. For context, Eddie Jones used to coach Australia.

Jones reacted like an enraged gay activist reading Israel Folau’s Instagram feed in the middle of Pride Month.

“Come here and say it. Come here and say it. Come here and say it,” Jones kept shouting as he was held back from jumping the fence into the crowd.

Over-reaction

Rugby Australia could have tapped Mr Jones on the shoulder and suggested he try to be less sensitive. It’s a football game. Sledging the opposition is generally accepted as part of the fun.

But instead, Rugby Australia chief executive Andy Marinos slammed the fan. He said:

“The offensive remarks made by spectators in the members’ areas towards England staff were unacceptable — and not representative of the values of rugby.”

The England coach threatening to fight a spectator in the crowd over a harmless bit of heckling, however, was perfectly acceptable.

According to a report in The Australian, they will seek to ban the mouthy spectator for five years! You get less time for physical assault in NSW.

So Rugby Australia will now not only referee player actions on the field, they will adjudicate spectator remarks off the field.

Throw in a Welcome to Country and the Australian anthem sung in an indigenous dialect that no one in the stadium understands and you’re as Woke as can be.

If only the Aussies knew how to win at rugby.

Someone called Eddie Jones a traitor for moving from Australia to coach the old enemy — er, our dear and highly respected friends in England, long live the Queen, but if not may Charles rule over us.

Who cares?

It’s a name; an insult. It’s not like it was a head-high tackle.

Censored

Something has seriously gone wrong in this country when you cannot voice your displeasure at a sporting result without being tut-tutted by the language police.

A punter in the stand can’t even lob a juvenile jibe over the fence without being cancelled by authorities. Surely this isn’t the first time in sporting history that an opposing coach has been taunted by an impassioned supporter of the opposition.

Rugby boss Andy Marinos told the media:

“We have a zero-tolerance policy for inappropriate behaviour… Rugby prides itself on values of respect and integrity. Please, cheer for your team with all that you have. But please, always show respect for others.”

Did Rugby Australia watch a video of the incident? The over-the-top reaction from Eddie Jones is what made the incident ugly.

On the plus side, it was more entertaining than the game itself. But I digress.

The English coach should have smiled and waved. Winners are grinners and losers can please themselves, after all.

But worse than Australia losing a game of rugby is Australians losing the ability to engage in a bit of innocuous banter at the footy.

Australia is reaching peak Wokeness if a footy fan gets picked out of a crowd of 40,000, plastered across the news and banned from attending future games for five years for the high crime of daring to heckle a fellow countryman who now coaches the Poms (by which I mean our dear and highly respected friends in England, long live the Queen, but if not may Charles rule over us).

Anyway, I banned myself from the Wallabies after their treatment of Israel Folau. The recent singing of the national anthem in an obscure dialect confirmed I’d made the right decision.

As for the overly sensitive Mr Jones. He might like to take on board the old quip from American comedian WC Fields — “It ain’t what they call you, it’s what you answer to that matters.”

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Originally published at The James Macpherson Report.
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