The brawl last weekend at Venice airport between alcoholic Agen players resulted in two layoffs. One of the two concerned could even be very quickly dismissed.
The SUA did not need this. Still at a standstill this season in the Top 14 (11 games, 11 defeats), Agen must also now deal with extra-sporting facts which he would have done well given the already nightmarish sporting situation. Incidents all the more serious as it could lead to a dismissal within the workforce. For the moment, it is only a question of layoffs – two to be exact – but one of the two could very quickly turn into outright termination of contract. The two sanctioned players in question – their identity is not yet known – are involved, not to say that they are the two main protagonists – of this famous fight between Agen players which broke out on the sidelines of the return flight from Italy , last Sunday after the 28-0 green carpet victory of the last of the Challenge Cup championship (2nd day) at the expense of Benetton Treviso. Several members of the Italian team having tested positive for Covid-19, the match, initially scheduled for Saturday evening, had been canceled at the last moment by the EPCR.
The wait is long, players drink and… fight!
A success (the first of the season in all competitions) that some AUS players have obviously decided to celebrate (or forget the frustration) in the check-in hall of Venice airport, where the long wait to board had offered them the possibility of opening bottle upon bottle or other cans. Alcohol helping, players, including team executives to believe La Dépêche du Midi, would then have come to blows under the eyes of the management, first dumbfounded then forced to separate the belligerents. Tuesday, President Jean-François Fonteneau had recognized “some excesses”, but not more, the leader assuring that calm had returned when getting on the plane. On the other hand, he had sworn to sanction the culprits, in the same way as he had already done (three players had been temporarily excluded and the staff thanked) after the debacle of October 31 against the UBB (71-5 ) in Gironde. Fonteneau, according to our colleagues, would have in particular a player of the Agen workforce in the viewfinder. The same player who could be sacked in the week.
