Fabien Galthié speaks of “a trauma” for the French XV after the arrest of two players, accused of sexual assault

“A trauma.” This is how the coach of the French XV, Fabien Galthié, described the case involving Oscar Jegou and Hugo Auradou on Tuesday, July 9. The two international players were arrested Monday following a complaint from a woman for “aggravated sexual assault” during the team’s tour in Argentina. The events allegedly took place on the night of Saturday to Sunday, a few hours after the victory of the Blues against the Pumas.

“For the group, for the delegation, it was experienced as a trauma, a form of shock when we heard the news and when the police arrived at the hotel in Buenos Aires. It was a very difficult day, very, very hard. A very difficult time to live through.”explained Fabien Galthié on the eve of the match against Uruguay. “If the facts are true, they are incredibly serious”reacted earlier the president of the FFR, Florian Grill, who is on site with the French XV.

This case comes a few hours after the sidelining of the tour and the sending back to France of the full-back Melvyn Jaminet, due to racist remarks in a video published on Sunday and for which he said he was “shameful”. “How to talk about this match? It’s an important match for Uruguay. In a difficult context, our team will play. We’ll see tomorrow”concluded the coach on Tuesday.