Jegou-Auradou affair: “A high level of alcohol”, behind the scenes of the evening of the XV of France

Witnesses present on the night of July 6 to 7, 2024 at the evening of the XV of France in Argentina tell our colleagues about the atmosphere of this party. After the Blues celebrated their victory, players Oscar Jegou and Hugo Auradou were accused of rape and violence.

The new scandal is damaging the world of rugby. During the night from Saturday to Sunday, Oscar Jegou (21 years old) and Hugo Auradou (20 years old), allegedly raped a young woman in a hotel in Mendoza, Argentina.

The complaint filed denounces extremely serious facts: the victim was allegedly strangled, hit and raped by the two players. They talk about consensual sexual intercourse.

Near the Parisian, witnesses of the evening of the French team, before the two players involved left with the alleged victim, tell.

Very drunken evening

Two days before the country's independence day, in the middle of the weekend, Mendoza was celebrating. The players of the XV of France celebrated their victory against the Argentine team in a very festive area of ​​the city, a sort of "rue de la soif".

"They arrived around 11pm and left around 1-1am 30am, says the waitress at the bar they frequented. There was no woman with them when they all left. But they had an abnormally high alcohol level." Specifying "lots of strong alcohol".

If she explains that the rugby players did not show disrespectful behavior, she keeps some memories of significant elements: a player who vomited on the ground , an Oscar Jegou who ends up with a bloody mouth after drinking from a broken glass or even a slightly different Melvyn Jaminet who stays drinking alone after the others have left.

A few hours later, Hugo Auradou "was the first to return to the hotel with this woman he met in a nightclub where he had gone dancing" quote our colleagues. It was then 5 o'clock in the morning. Oscar Jegou would have joined him later. They shared the same room.

Serious facts

The players are accused of having sexually abused and assaulted the victim in their hotel room. "He s&rsquo ;would constitute a particularly atrocious sexual abuse, with sexual intercourse, with the participation of two people, with violence, for both", declared in an interview with l’AFP Wednesday Me Natacha Romano, the plaintiff’s lawyer.

Oscar Jegou and Hugo Auradou for their part "confirmed having had sexual relations with the young woman during the night but firmly denied any form of violence", according to a press release from the French Rugby Federation published Tuesday.

According to Me Natacha Romano's version, her client returned to the hotel with Hugo Auradou and realized that the invitation to drink a drink was a trap. She would then have asked him to go to the toilet. Still according to Mr. Romano, "he immediately grabs her, throws her on the bed, begins to undress her and begins to beat her savagely with a punch, the hematoma of which is visible on the victim's face. He suffocates her, to the point where she feels like she's leaving."