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Bayonne statement: Police arrest of the club's assistant coach
By Liam Heagney
Top 14 newcomers Bayonne have issued a statement following the arrest of assistant coach Antoine Battut and their former physical trainer Cyril Gomes after an incident at a medical clinic emergency room. Promoted as Pro D2 champions, the club is due to launch its top-flight campaign with a September 3 trip to Toulon.
However, preparations have now been complicated following a late-night incident this week in which a nurse was allegedly attacked. The Bayonne statement read: “Aviron Bayonnais Rugby Pro has learned that a member of the sports staff is involved in an incident that occurred overnight from Monday to Tuesday.
“The club would like to point out that this event took place during a period of leave. The management of the club, which will meet the employee concerned as soon as possible, strongly condemns these facts which took place in a private context.
“Anxious to let justice do its job, the club will not make any additional comments and will take all necessary measures.”
Bayonne didn’t name the people caught up in the incident but local newspaper Sud-Ouest named the duo involved as current assistant coach Battut and former employee Gomes. Their story explained that the pair allegedly hit a nurse at the Aguilera clinic in Biarritz and a complaint was lodged at the local police station for aggravated violence.
The media reported that the two men - who were intoxicated - had accompanied the Bayonne club's video analyst to the emergency room after he was the victim of a scooter accident but a clash took place at the clinic that allegedly left a nurse bloodied on the ground. This led to Gomes being arrested at the scene and Battut, who was suspected of having thrown a punch, was taken into custody later on. He was reportedly released on Wednesday afternoon.
The 38-year-old enjoyed a 16-year professional career as a player, starting out with two years at Toulouse before switching to Auch and Montauban and then arriving at Racing in 2010. Battut spent four seasons in Paris before three seasons followed at Montpellier and he then ended his career with a three-season stint at Bayonne before moving into coaching with them.
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Dont know if the Irish players said it or not, but lets all be honest with ourselves, and hopefully both the Irish and French have healed by now, the Media did jump the gun, be realistic, according to 90% of the media it was a France and Ireland final, and the media had 1 of them winning the world cup, not even mentioning the All blacks? Just remember world cups are different, Australia was not the most in form cricket tean in the last cricket world cup, but they have a nack of winning when it matters. I wont go into whether what Etzabeth is saying is true, all I am saying is that its very easy for a team to get ahead of themselves due to the media. Nothing wrong with it, the media got the springboks over confident against England and we nearly lost that one.
Go to commentsHey Finn, Well done to the Junior Wallabies…a win is a win but it was a wet and scrappy game. Would be interesting to hear your opinion on two things from watching the game at the Not So Sunny Coast Stadium. Firstly, what is your opinion on the rule change of being able to call The Mark from a kick off and what is the reason for the change? Secondly, your thoughts on the lack of action for the high tackle on the SA fullback. I understand the TMO ruled that he had fallen into the tackle and the tackler didn’t have time to adjust but it was clearly shoulder on head and the Aussie 11 had not made any attempt to adjust his tackle height leading into the tackle. In my opinion he was never going to get his tackle technique correct to complete a safe tackle. If that tackle was made at a more senior and more scrutinised level would we have seen the same result?
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