REPORT. After the indictment of Hugo Auradou and Oscar Jegou, the fear in France of seeing the affair sully all of rugby

The two French rugby players Oscar Jegou and Hugo Auradou, accused of rape by a woman, have been charged in Argentina. In France, the unease is palpable among the players of Le Havre Athletic Club Rugby.

Last test match on Saturday for the French rugby team, which ends its summer tour in South America in turmoil after several scandals. They will face Argentina once again at 9 p.m. It’s pretty much the same lineup on the field as last week, but the context has changed.

On Friday, two French rugby players, Oscar Jegou and Hugo Auradou, were charged with aggravated rape. They admit to having had sexual relations with the complainant, but deny any violence. At the beginning of the week, it was the player Melvyn Jaminet who caused controversy after making racist remarks. Scandals that have been very badly experienced on the field by French rugby, such as in Le Havre, in Seine-Maritime, where HAC Rugby players regret the controversies. The unease is palpable.

At the edge of the field, HAC Rugby players supervise about ten youngsters under 14 for a summer camp. Between two exercises, it is impossible not to talk about the affairs that shake their sport. Mathéo, 23, is one of the coaches, and he is a little stunned. “It’s making noise, yes it’s a bit difficult”, admits the young man. Difficult to bear, because he fears seeing the image of rugby being tarnished.

Next to him, another Mathéo, who plays with the espoir team. “It’s a thug’s sport played by gentlemen who get on each other’s nerves on the field, but not off it. With stories like these, one might wonder if that’s really the case.” Result : it is the myth of the rugby player who is a brute on the pitch and a gentleman the rest of the time that is being undermined.

He is all the more disappointed because this new generation of players, according to him, is promising. “Our U20s have been world champions for two or three years, which somewhat destroys the image of the very strong new generation that we could have.”

“With stories like this, it’s unacceptable to play in the French team.”

Mathéo, player of the HAC Rugby espoir team

to franceinfo

Federico Vidal comes from Argentina. At 27, he plays in the first team of the Le Havre club, in Fédéral 1, the highest amateur level. According to him, the problem is more structural. “There is a lot of machismo. That’s the main problem. It’s very sad for the victim.” The culture of violence also plays a big part according to him. With sometimes tense post-matches. He wants justice to be done and for the federation to be up to the task so that “Players really pay the consequences”.

Also Argentinian, Ezequiel Cortez is a professional player. He rubbed shoulders with Hugo Auradou, one of the two internationals accused of rape in Argentina. “His father is David Auradou, he played here in Le Havre.” Although he admits to festive third halves, for Ezequiel it is not a problem of supervision that is at the origin of the scandals. “I don’t want to put it all on the staff either. You need a bit of freedom when you do this kind of tour, to cut out the sport a bit. We know guys, with us, with the group, they don’t drink. On the other hand, they have these groups of friends outside of rugby with whom they have these evenings. It has nothing to do with discipline.”

He does not want the actions of a few people to tarnish the image of his sport. “We shouldn’t punish everyone else either. We shouldn’t make everyone talk as if we rugby players were all monsters.” The rugby players are now awaiting the conclusions of the investigation and prefer to look ahead to the new season.