During a rugby match in Bagnères-de-Bigorre in December 2022, a 17-year-old young man fell on his neck after a tackle and became quadriplegic.
Six months after a bad tackle during a rugby match of the National School Sport Union (UNSS), the parents of Mathias Dantin, who became a quadriplegic, filed a complaint against X for involuntary injuries with the Tarbes prosecutor’s office, according to France Blue Bearn Bigorre. They point in particular to the responsibility of the UNSS.
On December 14, 2022, during a UNSS rugby match in Bagnères-de-Bigorre (Hautes-Pyrénées), the 17-year-old young man fell on his neck after a tackle and became quadriplegic. “This attack could have been avoided.believes Mathias’ father, because there was a breach of the rules of this tournament, a lack of support, of respect for the rules of the game, of respect for the opponent.”
“The guy goes after the little one”
Starting, according to Jérôme Dantin, with the fact that major and minor players play rugby with each other. It is also an 18-year-old boy, he explains, who is the author of the tackle against Mathias, 17 years old: “It’s a tournament that we are presented with as official, but I was there that day, and I didn’t see anything official in this tournament.”
“For seven seconds, the guy is hounding the little one, when he doesn’t have the ball”adds Me Jérôme Marfaing-Didier, the family lawyer, “He takes him in his arms, which is absolutely forbidden since he’s a cathedral tackle, then drops him like a bundle of coal and the kid falls on his neck. Seven seconds. And no one whistles. So there are terrible problems at this level, a failure of the framework, of monitoring the regulations, which caused the damage”.
According to the family lawyer, despite several attempts to discuss with the UNSS, no exchange could take place with its representatives. In the days following the incident, the UNSS donated 20,000 euros to the Dantin family. But this is far from enough according to Mathias’ father, since a wheelchair alone costs 35,000 euros. Contacted by France Bleu Béarn Bigorre, the UNSS did not respond to their requests.