Jegou-Auradou affair. Baptiste Serin: “It’s not the best preparation but we have an international match to play”

Serin sera le capitaine des Bleus contre l'Argentine. Archives MAXPPP – olivier corsan

"We prepared as best we could", declared the captain of the XV of France Baptiste Serin, Friday July 12 at a press conference, after the indictment for aggravated rape of two of his teammates Oscar Jegou and Hugo Auradou and on the eve of the match against Argentina.

"I'm not going to lie to you, it's not the best preparation but we have an international match to play and we are all focused on what we can control. We prepared as best we could, we are going to put all our strength into this last battle. Afterwards, we will see but we will give everything for our group", assured Serin, captain of the Blues for the last match of the tour in Argentina.

Everything you need to know about the Jegou-Auradou affair

Oscar Jegou (21 years old) and Hugo Auradou (20 years old) were indicted on Friday for the aggravated rape of a woman who accuses them of having raped and beaten her on the night of Saturday to Sunday in their hotel in Mendoza (west), after the victory in the first test- match (28-13). On Monday, fullback Melvyn Jaminet was sent back to France after a video published on his Instagram account containing racist remarks.

"It's beyond us all"

"I only have one desire, and that is to concentrate on what we can do tomorrow, what we can control tomorrow, he said. It goes beyond all of us: we, the players, can just take care of what ingredients we are going to put. It will be another match, tougher than what it was last week."

"It's up to us to be ready to answer that even if, obviously, we would have liked to only talk about rugby", added the scrum half from Toulon (30 years old, 45 caps). After beating Argentina (28-13) then Uruguay (43-28) in a friendly match, the Blues end their tour by meeting the Pumas on Saturday in Buenos Aires.