The third half ended in a cell. French rugby players Oscar Jegou and Hugo Auradou were charged with aggravated rape following a complaint from a woman who reported violence committed in their hotel in Mendoza, Argentina, after a France XV match.
The plaintiff’s lawyer recounted a night of “excessive violence”“citing as proof “the victim’s body, [qui] speaks for itself”. While the two players, who invoke “a consensual relationship”, were released from prison to be placed under house arrest on Wednesday, July 17, and witness hearings continue in Mendoza.
Contacted by franceinfo, the president of the French Rugby Supporters Federation, Franck Lemann, stated without hesitation: “This type of slippage is not in line with values” of this team sport. He’s not the only one who thinks so. The institutional players in the world of rugby, led by the president of the French Rugby Federation, have all “held to recall that the Argentinian affair in no way represents rugby or rugby players”observes Carole Gomez, specialist in the geopolitics of rugby and doctoral student at the University of Lausanne (Switzerland).
Such facts “atrocious”, “if they are proven” as specified by the Minister of Sports Amélie Oudéa-Castera, would therefore be contrary to the “values of Ovalie”, built on discipline, integrity and respect. A specificity of the oval ball? The practice of sport “is not a vector of any value other than those with which society invests it”, sweeps Carole Gomez. The concept has become, for clubs and federations, a “marketing argument” formidable, adds the researcher.
The argument of the noble values linked to rugby which would be incompatible with violence against women nevertheless comes back relentlessly. In 2023, the pillar of the Blues Mohamed Haouas was sentenced to one year in prison for domestic violence. The club ASM Clermont Auvergne, that he was to join, announces that he will not be able to wear his colors because of behavior “in opposition with [ses] convictions”. Which did not prevent him from joining the Biarritz team, then Montpellier the following season.
His case is not isolated: for similar facts, the Castres (Tarn) pillar Wilfrid Hounkpatin was sentenced in April to twelve months in prison suspended. The club has again denounced “actions in total contradiction with [ses] values”but reinstated him shortly after. As for Top 14 player George Tilsley, he was given a six-month suspended prison sentence in August 2023. Thrown out by Stade Toulousain, Agen and then Angoulême then welcomed him.
Less than three months before the France XV affair broke out in Argentina, several junior players from the Bourg-en-Bresse club were the subject of a complaint for the rape of a woman, on the sidelines of a sports trip. Finally, we can mention the accusation of five former Grenoble rugby players for the gang rape, in 2017, of a woman who was 20 at the time of the events. During the trial, which should be held in December, three of them will be tried for rape and two for failure to assist a person in danger.
Far from the myth of “hooligan sport practiced by gentlemen”rugby is mainly part of “an ideology of virility”underlines Philippe Liotard, anthropologist and specialist in sexual violence in sport. A culture “virile” that can “going as far as imposing oneself on others“, adds the researcher.
“To be able to win the physical balance of power, self-affirmation requires assertion over others.”
Philippe Liotard, anthropologist and specialist in sexual violence in sportto franceinfo
The combative nature of the discipline contributes to the phenomenon. “We seek to annihilate the strength of the other”, corroborates the anthropologist and independent researcher Anne Saouter, specialist in the production of sexualized bodies in sports practices. “To achieve this, the touch is permanent, although highly regulated,” she continues.
In order for the relationship with the body to be desacralized and for these contacts to be able to occur on the ground, “rituals” are put in place after the match, during the famous third half, when the players “undoing the collective body around drinking, partying, games”, summarizes the researcher.
On the bus returning from a trip, it is not uncommon to see athletes “to strip naked”continues the anthropologist. As the evening progressed, “some will go to urinate, defecate in one place”, or even indulge in “degradations” of material, she lists. Situations often “set internally by the clubs”, in the frame “of lifting the suspenders”, without further consequences.
During these excesses or acts of violence, the cleats are certainly taken off and the jerseys are put in the locker rooms, but should we therefore separate the third half from the sporting discipline? “These moments of celebration help to create bonds, solidarity, to build team spirit, and therefore contribute to performance”, judges sports sociologist Seghir Lazri.
It sums : “The spaces of deviance are fully integrated into rugby. The third half allows for the spectacle that is rugby to be produced. [Ce sport] produces a so-called hegemonic masculinity, which discredits women and assigns them to a certain place.”
In this post-match universe, which is mainly played “between friends”, in a closed circle of gender, but also of social and racial background, women who venture to share the bodega, the bar or the nightclub with the “club guy” are objectified. “Athletes have consideration for the woman who packs the sports bag or takes the children… In short, who takes care of the management of the home and therefore allows a sports career to be completed. The one who participates in the third half does not fit into the standard of the ideal woman”, continues Seghir Lazri.
“The girl at the party is a sex object.”
Anne Saouter, anthropologistto franceinfo
Women are then integrated into a perspective of sexual exchanges, during what the anthropologist Anne Saouter calls “the fourth half”. Sex games “with the groupies, or sometimes with the call girls [prostituées]take place there”. In “those guys’ nights out”, the president of the French Rugby Supporters Federation, admits the presence, “occasional”, “of added parts” and sexual stories, but which, with the exception of possible “marginal slippages”would be “always consenting”. “A player or supporter behaving inappropriately during the third half would be disciplined by the participants.”he assures.
A joyful and collective description which diverges from the story given to franceinfo by several women working in a similar environment. “I was a student in a rugby country, and as in other party environments, we knew we had to protect ourselves”recalls Eva, a member of the feminist association La Mèche, based in Agen (Lot-et-Garonne). She says she had to “deploy avoidance strategies” to ensure her own safety when she shared party venues with the rugby players. She stresses that these situations are part of “in the broader context of the rape culture“, present “in all spheres of society.”
In the world of the third half, more than in other spheres of society, alcohol is omnipresent. “It’s the image of the France of bell towers, of rugby players who are local guys, of good guys who eat well and who drink shots”illustrates sociologist Seghir Lazri. Ritual and excessive drinking which can cause endangerment of oneself and others, in addition to constituting an aggravating circumstance under French law).
The drink is indeed “a significant risk factor in the area of violence, without[elle] does not represent a necessary or sufficient cause”we could read in the first study of the General Directorate of Health (PDF document) on the subject, published in 2008. More recently, an investigation by World further demonstrated that alcohol played a major role in “ordinary violence”particularly in sexual violence.
“For years we were sold players who were no longer in these excesses. Now the varnish is cracking,” exclaims former rugby international Laurent Bénézech. The former champion regrets the increase “antisocial behavior” among professional players.
“Some players are finding it increasingly difficult to distinguish between what is inherent to a combat sport and what corresponds to everyday life.”
Laurent Bénézech, former international rugby playerto franceinfo
A situation that he believes is exacerbated by the professionalization of rugby, which goes hand in hand with an entourage that manages the athletes.”as mini-SMEs”. The players’ advisors and friends would thus tend to turn a blind eye to the actions of their protégés, “even when they deviate.”
As part of the French team’s tour in Argentina, these same young people, overvalued and placed in a bubble, are then “released into the wild after a victory as if they were ten years older”, he regrets. Explanatory clues which ““do not excuse anything”, but “can create conditions” conducive to violence, sums up the former champion.
Is the environment ready to evolve after the Argentine affair? “There will of course be a before and after Mendoza”promised the head of the French Rugby Federation, Florian Grill, on Tuesday, announcing a “zero tolerance” against wrongdoing by players. While defending “the spirit of the third half”.