BORDEAUX: A French court Friday jailed three rugby players formerly with French side Grenoble for 12 to 14 years over the 2017 rape of a student after a drunken night out.
It sentenced Irishman Denis Coulson, 30, and Frenchman Loick Jammes, 30, to 14 years behind bars, and New Zealander Rory Grice, 34, to 12 years in jail.
None of the three had been in detention until now.
Coulson had stopped playing rugby and was working in construction, while Jammes and Grice have been playing for Provence Rugby and Oyonnax, two French clubs in second division.
Gaessy Gros, one of the lawyers representing the victim, said the ruling “gave a very strong signal to men in this country, to the rugby world, and to women.”
Coulson’s lawyer Corinne Dreyfus-Schmidt said she was “extremely shocked” by the verdict.
She and attorneys for Jammes and Grice said they would appeal.
The court in the southwestern city of Bordeaux also handed a four-year sentence, including two years suspended, to ex-Ireland international 31-year-old Chris Farrel over failure to prevent the crime.
Farrel, who has also been playing for Oyonnax, was to serve his two years under house arrest with an electronic bracelet.
New Zealander Dylan Hayes, now 30 and unemployed, received a two-year suspended sentence, also for not intervening to stop the rape.
In the small hours of March 12, 2017, the student, identified only as V., was in tears as she left a hotel on the outskirts of Bordeaux, where the Grenoble team spent the night after losing a Top 14 encounter against local side Bordeaux-Begles.
V. filed a complaint with police, saying she had met the players in a bar together with two friends and accompanied them to a nightclub where all of them drank heavily.
The student said she had no recollection of how she got from the club to the hotel where she woke up, undressed on a bed and abused.
She saw two undressed men in the room and others fully dressed.
Coulson, Jammes and Grice stated they had an encounter with V. but claimed it was consensual and the student had been pro-active in bringing it about.
On the basis of statements from the accused and witnesses, as well as a video shot by Coulson, investigators have concluded there were several incidents of abuse.
CCTV footage showed her having difficulty standing up as she arrived at the hotel and being propped up by a player.
Gros argued during the trial V. was “in no state to give her consent as these men who carried her, who were with her, know perfectly well.”
Coulson’s lawyer, Dreyfus-Schmidt on Wednesday said her client had apologized to the victim and his teammates too “because he feels responsible as it was him who led the young woman into the room.”
Rape accusations have shaken the world of international rugby recently.
An Argentine court on Tuesday dismissed rape charges against two French international rugby players accused of assaulting a woman after playing a match in the country in July.
Hugo Auradou and Oscar Jegou, both aged 21, were held for weeks in Argentina after the alleged July assault.
A 39-year-old woman, whom they met in a nightclub accused them of a vicious assault in a hotel room.
A judge in Mendoza dismissed the case on the advice of the prosecution, which called for the charges to be dropped over inconsistencies in the woman’s version of events. Her lawyer too is planning to appeal.

ZURICH: Thomas Tuchel’s first official duty as England coach on Friday was to see his new team drawn in a 2026 World Cup qualifying group with Serbia, Albania, Latvia and Andorra.
Tuchel starts work in January as the first German coach of the 1966 World Cup winner but was at FIFA headquarters to see the 54 European teams drawn into 12 qualifying groups. Games start in March for some groups, while others will begin in June or September.
“It’s a difficult group, is my first impression,” said Tuchel, who must wait for FIFA to approve the fixture list to see if his England debut will be a qualifying game in March or a warm-up friendly.
Europe will send 16 teams to the first 48-team World Cup, being co-hosted by the United States, Canada and Mexico. The 12 group winners next November advance directly and runners-up go to a playoff in March 2026, joined by four more teams who won a Nations League group last month.
England are one of the few top-seeded teams to already know their qualifying opponents. Most groups are still incomplete as eight top-seeded teams will be placed based on the results of their Nations League quarterfinals in March.
The winner of the quarterfinal between European champion Spain and the Netherlands faces a tough Group E with Turkiye, Georgia and Bulgaria.
Spain ended Georgia’s impressive run at their first major tournament, winning 4-1 in the round of 16 at Euro 2024 in Germany.
Georgia coach Willy Sagnol acknowledged “it will be a difficult group,” with Turkiye having lost a Euro 2024 quarterfinal to the Netherlands.
The loser between Spain and the Netherlands be in a five-team group with Poland, Finland, Lithuania and Malta that shapes to be less challenging.
The winner between France and Croatia in March will head Group D with Ukraine, Iceland and Azerbaijan. The loser of that Nations League quarterfinal will be in the five-team Group L with the Czech Republic, Montenegro, Faeroe Islands and Gibraltar.
For Germany and Italy, the group draw could be an added incentive to win their Nations League meeting and land in Group A.
Germany coach Julian Nagelsmann acknowledged it would be “a bit easier” to play in a four-team group with Slovakia, Northern Ireland and Luxembourg. The loser will face Erling Haaland and Norway in a five-team group that also includes, Israel, Estonia and Moldova. Israel have been unable to host games for security reasons since the Hamas attacks in October last year, and likely will continue playing home games in Hungary.
Russia were excluded from Friday’s draw because their teams are banned from international competitions by FIFA and UEFA since the military invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Russia’s military ally Belarus, which will play in a group with either Portugal or Denmark, plus Greece and Scotland, have been forced to host games in neutral countries because of the war.
One security challenge could arise in England’s group, with Serbia set to host Albania for the first time since the famous “drone game” in 2014 between the Balkan near-neighbors.
A decade ago, the game in Belgrade abandoned after a fan outside the stadium flew a drone over the field with an Albanian nationalist banner, leading to clashes between players and a field invasion by Serbian fans. UEFA awarded Serbia a win by default that was overturned on appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, ultimately sending Albania to their tournament debut at Euro 2016.
Soccer relations between Serbia and Albania — at federation level, if not among ultras fan groups — are much improved and they are set to be confirmed Monday as co-hosts of the Under-21 Euros in 2027.