French international Oscar Jegou, still charged with rape in Argentina, is back in the La Rochelle group as a starter for the first time this season on Saturday against Stade Français, according to the team composition published on Friday November 1 by the club.
As announced in recent hours, the double European champion club did not wait for the hearing of the request for dismissal to relaunch the third row in the French championship. With Pau’s second line Hugo Auradou, who returned to the field at the beginning of October, the La Rochelle third line is still charged with aggravated rape by the Argentine courts for alleged acts which allegedly occurred in Mendoza, on the night following their first selection for the France team against Argentina on July 6.
A hearing to study the two players’ request for dismissal, postponed several times and initially scheduled for Friday, has been postponed indefinitely, AFP learned Thursday from Argentine judicial sources.
Provisional detention
The two players have maintained from the beginning that the sexual relations with the complainant, a 39-year-old Argentinian they met in a nightclub, were consensual and without violence. His lawyer, on the contrary, denounced a rape with “violence terrible”. First placed in pre-trial detention then placed under house arrest in Mendoza, the players were released in mid-August, then authorized to return to France at the beginning of September.
Hugo Auradou returned to the Pau training center five days later and resumed collective training in mid-September, before playing again for the first time in Perpignan, at the beginning of October during the 5th day of the Top 14.
Resumption at the end of September
Oscar Jegou resumed training at the end of September, but his return to competition was delayed by his club, which had initially decided to wait for a decision to dismiss the case from the Argentine courts. The various postponements of the hearing, but also the shortage of third lines in the maritime ranks, have changed this position.
La Rochelle captain Grégory Alldritt and flanker Paul Boudehent are currently with the Blues in Marcoussis to prepare for the November test matches, Fijian Levani Botia has not completely recovered from his broken forearm while Judicaël Cancoriet has was suspended for four weeks by the disciplinary committee this Thursday following a yellow card received against Bordeaux-Bègles.
“We are very happy to see him back on the field and to see him playing rugby” La Rochelle assistant coach Rémi Talès commented on Thursday, when asked about the presence of Jegou in training with a starting bib.
Senegal
