“Drama for sport and Rugby”

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Sometimes theater of violent slippagesamateur rugby had some bad times this weekend. Traveling to the Rochefort field on behalf of the 12^e day of Fédérale 2, Plaisir, leader of group 8, fell into a “trap”. Coach Sébastien Roncalli recounts this sad afternoon marked by big general fights and its consequences for At the time of Rugby.

Amateur rugby: violent fights between Rochefort and Plaisir

“We came to play rugby, to have fun. They, on the contrary, wanted to make themselves the Pleasure leader, and all means are good.” Here in one breath is the sad observation made by Sébastien Roncalli the day after a bad Sunday spent in Charente-Maritime.

Obviously disgusted with the attitude of his recent opponents, the coach will take no joy in his team's 14-3 victory against Rochefort.

“What happened was a bit like usual when things get out of hand on a rugby field. Afterwards, the tragedy was that it continued well after. For me, it is unfortunately the responsibility of the two officials, the referee and the federal official. Uncontained aggression, even by opposing coaches. And in particular a coach, who was the field assistant for the day, who was very angry all afternoon. The refereeing was not up to standard at all. The sanctions should have been taken well before,” he explains to At the time of Rugby.

“They are not taken. And one thing leading to another, we arrive at more and more intense clashes, until we have general fights on the field, with sideline referees who allow themselves to throw punches, throw the sideline flag and company, and then let it be refereed, left on the field. A rugby drama and a human drama,” laments Sébastien.

It started with unhealthy aggression. A very concrete example, I have my hooker who comes out of a closed melee, his head bleeding, his forehead open, his nose open. The referee saw nothing. However, we all know that in scrums, at a given moment, you have to be vigilant about what is happening.

He also does not shy away from the faults of his men: “The referee gave us a red card very early in the match, after a quarter of an hour of play. I said it at half-time, if the player punched him in the face, we apply the rules, I have no problem. But then you have to be consistent. »

A fight that spills over after the end of the match

Traditionally, whatever the violence of the clashes, we like to say in the world of rugby that they normally remain confined to the field. Basically, no matter how much we laughed at each other during the match, we're supposed to shake hands once the game is over and move on.

The Plaisir players apparently did not have this luck since the scuffles continued after the final whistle:

“We started shaking hands. I told myself it was good. And then we see the field assistant, so one of their coaches, running off, going all around the group of players who are shaking hands and taking on my 15 again, grabbing him by the jersey, shove him. Afterwards, everything starts again,” continues Sébastien.

“And there, we see very dirty things with their number 5 going around, coming from behind. I don't know if he's Tongan, Fijian… He's very strong. My number 15 is a young player… I'm not saying he was perfect, certainly he also watered them a little orally. I think he was teasing. But the other goes around and attacks him with a punch, completely treacherous from behind with great violence. Afterwards, there were kicks. There were lots of things. People from the public who came. It was a great moment of solitude. We did everything to calm it all down, but it was very complicated,” he describes.

Appeal to the FFR and complaint to the gendarmerie

From this wasted Sunday, the players and staff of Plaisir will have to recover, taking with them some physical and psychological after-effects. And administrative, since the two red cards they received will inevitably disrupt the rest of the season.

“To be honest, it was a difficult week for us. We are still amateurs. And we have a match on December 22 where we have to get up. We left at 5 a.m., we joined at 4:45 a.m. We are leaders, we have a goal of climbing, we obviously go there to play rugby, to have fun. It's the last match of the year, we want to have fun anyway and play rugby. And we arrive in a trap,” estimates the coach.

Who won’t let things end like this: “We’re not going to stop there. We're going to do both things. An appeal at the level of the FFR and at the criminal level, there will be a complaint, at least, filed. »

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