All eyes were on him. Still in trouble with the Argentine justice system, Oscar Jegou was able to ignore the extra-sporting context to sign a sensational return to the game on Saturday with his club La Rochelle. Story of an evening that the international third row could not have hoped for better.
“I wondered how he was going to be received… Honestly, I’m so happy for him!” Alexandre Kaddouri was in the best position around 7:45 p.m. on Saturday, when he cut through a crowd of Deflandre who sent out “Come on Oscar!” », to evaluate the beginnings of the next day of his (close) friend Oscar Jegou. A Saturday evening at Marcel's, his lifelong garden, where the third row of Stade Rochelais very quickly resumed – and in what way – the thread of a career interrupted by the aggravated rape case in Argentina in which he remains involved with the Palois Hugo Auradou, for want of a dismissal which is as inevitable as it is not long before it is pronounced.
If the management of the Caravel club had decided during the week to finally no longer follow the shaky legal calendar to relaunch its protégé, which did not fail to agitate the public sphere, it was not disappointed of this turnaround. Neither does Deflandre. And even less the person concerned, impatient to do battle with an oval ball and opponents in shorts. This was eye-popping, during a majuscule performance, worthy of the man of the match, punctuated by an ovation from the stands. Dozens of “Je-gou”, “Je-gou”, “Je-gou”. The first of which resonated from the hour of play, moreover, to salute his try synonymous with an offensive bonus. And this heart then drawn by the native of La Rochelle with his fingers. The striking image of a more than perfect evening, which this supporter encountered in the guard of honor anticipated “very important to him, because he suffered.”
Trust and omnipresence
All along, Oscar Jegou obviously needed to verbalize. When, for example, he rushed to angrily harangue his teammates who had come to unsettle a maul (55th). When he exulted, too, like a Grand Slam winner, in the final arm wrestling match. As if, beyond the La Rochelle success, to release all his frustration from long weeks of hide-and-seek when his friend and co-accused Hugo Auradou was already on his fifth sporting appearance since the “night of Mendoza”.
“Oscar was just happy to play, testifies Kaddouri, pillar of his state. He's been waiting to play again for a while.” And regardless of the spotlight naturally focused on him, ongoing business requires, “he thought more about his match than what was going to happen around it.” “He has this ability, completes his third-row friend Matthias Haddad-Victor, to put things into perspective and be able to express oneself with complete confidence on the pitch.” Clean entry into touch, Jegou quickly gained momentum with an authoritarian contest in his half (18e). Until then running everywhere, with all the good moves.
Leyds talks about the Blues
“What if I expected him to last 80 minutes? No problem! He's light, but his heart…”, Donnacha Ryan laughs as she leaves the locker room and “a good time spent with Oscar's grandparents”. And the coach of the La Rochelle forwards was rave: “What a match! He's a great player. But it's no surprise because we are privileged to see him evolve every day. He is very lucid. The last three weeks, he was very motivated, very efficient on his qualities in training. His bodybuilding work was evident given his impact on the field. (Van Der Mescht can attest to this in the 30th, Editor’s note). It's anything but a coincidence that he scored a try.”
Very close to a double, pushed at the last minute into touch 5m from the Parisian goal (58th), in addition to being directly involved in his team's first two goals, Oscar Jegou amazed everyone. “It's huge, insists Dillyn Leyds, captain du soir. We are very proud of him. He was having a hard time these last two, three months but we were always behind him. He must be proud of his performance. If he continues like this, he won't be far from finding the France team. I hope so for him.” Remaining deadlines until then. Including a capital, of a judicial nature.
