Stade Delaune, Pont-du-Las district in Toulon, Sunday afternoon. The Racing club du Las, (6th in its Regional 2 group), hosts the Rugby club du Beausset, second. An amateur match like thousands played every weekend on the French oval fields. Except that this one will go down in history for sinister reasons.
Let’s first go back to the beginning of November, during the first leg played at Beausset. A tense match. Very tense even since he was arrested after only 15 minutes after a huge general fight with invasion of the field. Suffice to say that the return match looked… invigorating. For “to protect yourself” the leaders of Beausset had asked the Ligue Sud for the classification of the meeting “at risk”allowing the benefit of two sideline referees and a federal representative in addition to the field referee.
As expected, a phalanx salad is on the menu at the start of the meeting. The blows, insults and cards rained down but the field referee, Simon Lloret, made sure to bring the match to its conclusion. In the 75th minute, the young 19-year-old game director whistled a penalty in favor of Beausset. The Lassipontain pillar Anthony V. complains against this decision. As a result, his team is asked to move back ten meters. The penalty is converted, bringing the score to 17-10 in favor of the visitors.
“I got punched from behind”
The rest is told by Simon Lloret: “ As he returns, this same player insults me and says: “Don’t worry, I’ll take you back to your car!” I then gave him a red card, without any hesitation. I was heading towards the center of the field when I received a punch from behind in the jaw. I fell, knocked out.” The referee remains on the ground for many minutes, unconscious. When he regains consciousness, his linesmen tell him to whistle the end of the match. Later, giving reassuring signs, Simon Lloret insisted on returning alone by car to his home in Nice and went to the emergency room of the Pasteur University Hospital. It is then 8:30 p.m. “I had a headache and vomited twice on Monday”says the referee contacted this Tuesday by telephone.
The same evening of the events, the Racing club du Las and its president Patrick Aicardi fired the culprit, subsequently condemning “a deplorable act which brings discredit to the entire club”.
His son and hooker Anthony, present on the field, gives his feelings: “ The match was tough, but like we often play. There were two yellows, one red, it was OK, the referee held his match. Except that five minutes from the end, our player completely broke down. He made an unforgivable gesture. We don’t have the words… It was chance that he had to go out on the following action, but we hadn’t realized that he could make this gesture. We really want to explain that this is an isolated gesture. We immediately took charge of the referee. We apologized, we notified the boss of the region’s referees and the president of the Southern League to apologize.”
“We are shocked. We took hits, my nose was broken in the game, it’s still rugby, but we’re not used to this violence”, estimates Raphaël Navarrete, the player-president of Beausset. A violence that those involved in the encounter cannot explain. Several testimonies speak of a player suffering in his personal life. He had returned to rugby after 6 or 7 years off. His comrades describe someone “ non-violent, kind, almost teddy bear”. “ He was saddened, apologized and understood that it was seriousreports Anthony Aicardi. But it’s not enough and he is no longer part of the squad. His action is unforgivable. We don’t have those values. You know, it put a damper on the whole club. The group is destroyed. I’ve never seen that. Some guys told me that they would stop immediately, that they would never set foot on a field again. We come to enjoy, not to fight. And even less to hit a referee… I am torn between sadness, anger, revolt…”
“I am in shock, like the whole clubadmits Stéphane Durand, player and head of the Las referees. When it happened, I saw 300-pound, 35-year-old guys burst into tears. One of the coaches felt unwell… We didn’t understand. A match can be intense, but that should never happen again on the pitch. You can have a big temper, respond with a good tackle, but take it out on a referee… The red line has been crossed. After the meeting, I resigned from all my assignments. Secretary, rugby school, everything. I cannot endorsehe says, thinking first of his colleague. We were able to talk at length. Simon is a very promising and fair young referee, who knows how to speak to the players. I told him again that he had to continue because he has talent, that he is made for this. What happened to him is unforgivable, but should not call into question his passion for refereeing.”
A complaint filed
“ I intend to continue refereeing because I want to go as high as possible and I’m not going to stop for an idiot like that, for someone who doesn’t think of others.”cuts short the student at the Edhec Business School in Nice who however filed a complaint for “assault and injury to a match official”.
If this attack is an isolated incident, the young man from St-Martin-de-Crau (13) has noticed a more significant trend for several months. “ Players’ nervousness and bad gestures have been increasingly present since the Rugby World Cup [entachée par des polémiques sur l’arbitrage]. I show a red card almost in every match whereas over the whole of last season, I gave four or five.” During this same weekend, the Southern Rugby League denounced here a linesman threatened by supporters, there hateful remarks towards managers or aggressive young players. So many isolated outbursts which, put together, resemble a nauseating trend.
2024-02-20 16:34:17
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