Jegou given a standing ovation by La Rochelle supporters after scoring a try for his return

Back on the field for the first time since his indictment for aggravated rape in Argentina, Oscar Jegou scored a try with La Rochelle against Stade Français during the 9th day of Top 14 and received a standing ovation from Marcel’s public Deflandre.

Still being prosecuted for aggravated rape in Argentina, Oscar Jegou returned to competition this Saturday with La Rochelle during the victory against Stade Français (35-18). The third row 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.

Starting this Saturday, the flanker even scored a try on the hour mark to allow the Maritimes to validate the offensive bonus against the Parisians. Enough to make the La Rochelle supporters roar, who chanted his name several times. The 21-year-old responded by making a heart with his hands, helping his team move up to third place in the Top 14 ahead of Bayonne-Toulouse on Sunday evening.

The hearing on the request for dismissal postponed indefinitely

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, the night following their first team selection of France 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. The two players have maintained from the beginning that the sexual relations with the complainant, a 39-year-old Argentinian met in a nightclub in July during the XV of France tour, were consensual and without violence. The alleged victim’s lawyer, on the contrary, denounced a rape with “terrible violence”. First placed in pre-trial detention then placed under house arrest in Mendoza, the two rugby players were released in mid-August, then authorized to return to France at the beginning of September.