Long before social media eased the path for sportspeople to interact with fans, Eric Cantona was offering his own take on such matters.
Turn back the clock to Selhurst Park in January 1995 and the Frenchman piling into a Crystal Palace supporter from whom he had picked up a negative vibe.
Of course, Matthew Simmons, the man Cantona attacked, denied telling the Gallic superstar “f**k off back to France”, as was alleged.
His account was that he had merely shouted "Off! Off! Off! It's an early bath for you, Mr Cantona!"
The surprise was he didn’t claim to have thrown in a “Sir” for good measure.
Whatever, he got the full Bruce Lee treatment from an enraged Manchester United No. 7.
Cantona received a £200,000 fine for his troubles, a nine-month ban from football plus a suspended two-week jail sentence, later reduced to 120 hours’ community service.
Jonah Lomu did things differently.
When a spectator confronted him at Stradey Park in 2006, the late, great All Black simply turned the other cheek and walked away in an awesome demonstration of restraint.
On what would have been Lomu's 48th birthday, rugby correspondent Mark Orders recalls a night which said much about Jonah the man as well as Jonah the rugby player.
The game
The Scarlets hosted Cardiff Blues in a Celtic League clash on January 2, 2006, barely three weeks after Lomu had made his debut for the capital-city region.
His opening game for the Blues had been in Italy against Calvisano in the Heineken Cup.
It had been his first outing since recovering from a life-threatening kidney condition.
For his home debut, in the return fixture against the Italians, a crowd of 11,764, the Arms Park’s biggest in five years, had attended. It was estimated that shorn of his presence, the game might have attracted a gate of around 4,000.
Even past his best, he was box office and for the Scarlets-Blues encounter at Stradey Park, 9,364 were in the ground, with a number of them having come just to see Lomu.
The Scarlets won 32-13, with tries from Martyn Madden, Mark Jones, Dwayne Peel, Matthew Watkins and Regan King.
The legend of Lomu
Lomu’s health troubles may have reduced him to the ranks of the mere mortals by the time he joined the Blues, but a decade or so earlier he had acquired towering status for his deeds on and off the field.
Rugby had never previously witnessed anything like his four tries for New Zealand in the 1995 World Cup semi-final against England in Cape Town. Here was a wing who, as the Independent’s Chris Hewett later said, had “the balance of a gymnast and the gear-shift potency of the Lamborghini he loved to drive”.
The gates to the modern game were smashed to the floor that day in South Africa, along with England’s Mike Catt.
Off the field, Lomu predictably attracted attention wherever he went.
When he came to Wales for his first visit, to play in a testimonial match for Ieuan Evans in late 1995, the then 20-year-old travelled to the home town of Phil Kingsley Jones, his manager and friend. In Blaina High Street he stopped the traffic.
This was a chap who interested people.
The incident
The match in Llanelli had been largely unremarkable, with the Scarlets too strong for Cardiff Blues.
But Lomu’s presence in the east-west confrontation had created a crackle of anticipation beforehand.
Such matches rarely need the temperature to be turned up.
But there had been sufficient hype for this one to be slightly different from others.
During the second half, a supporter, wearing a Scarlets shirt, picked up the ball after it had rolled into touch and offered it to Lomu, only to throw it yards over the Kiwi’s head before hurling abuse at him.
The Times reported: “He was also seen on television gesticulating at Lomu and acting in a threatening manner.”
Lomu’s response
It was here that Lomu showed powers of restraint that would have awed a Buddhist monk.
The late Ian Wooldridge, then of the Daily Mail, described it best.
“Huge international headlines precariously hung in the balance,” wrote Wooldridge.
“A single retaliatory punch from Lomu, who stands 6ft 5in, weighs 19 stone and once legitimately mowed down three English heavyweights in a single charge at Twickenham, could have reduced the Welsh population by one.
“The great Lomu turned the other cheek and calmly walked away, a gesture of nobility which not for a moment I fear, will sedate the antagonism of fans too stupid to accept that sport, from its inception, has been about winning or losing with equal grace.”
It was an example of how a top sportsman should conduct himself in the face of provocation.
The aftermath
The Scarlets handed a life ban to the man who had confronted Lomu.
Fans had helped identify the individual as Simon Coddington, who had previously lived in the Nottingham area, and he duly met the region’s then chief executive Stuart Gallacher, now sadly no longer with us, who informed him he would not be welcomed back at Stradey Park after his “irresponsible and unacceptably aggressive behaviour”.
“As well as insulting a great player, his behaviour was offensive to both clubs and the game of rugby,” said Gallagher, who issued a written apology to the Blues and Lomu after the incident.
It emerged Coddington was also banned at the time from all football grounds in Nottinghamshire.
Gallacher said that Coddington had been "very mild and meek" during their meeting and also apologised.
"He understands that he was out of line. He doesn't realise why he did it. However, that does not condone what he did," said Mr Gallacher.
"It's not acceptable. It's not what rugby is about.
"I think all of us that have played and watched the game, particularly our young supporters, don't need that kind of example."
Postscript
It was the way Lomu conducted himself that sticks in the memory.
In that potential flashpoint, he did everything right.
Rugby is only a game.
Sport isn’t worth blowing an emotional gasket over.
What an example and what a player.
Most importantly, what a man.
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