The case takes a political turn. Sports Minister Roxana Maracineanu put pressure on the French Rugby Federation (FFR) on Friday, reminding it of its request for an investigation. In question: the cascade of Covid-19 contaminations within the XV of France, which led to the cancellation of the match against Scotland initially scheduled for Sunday as part of the six nations tournament. With 17 cases of contamination in ten days, the XV of France has become a cluster. His hopes of a grand slam this winter are shattered, and the controversy is mounting. How could the health bubble created around the team explode under these conditions? Back on a case that poisons French sport.
It all started so well. On February 6, 2010, the team of france rugby crushes Italy 50 to 10. Eight days later, the Blues win in Ireland (15-13) and confirm their good start to the tournament. Next challenge: Scotland, February 28. But the machine jams. Two days after the victory in Ireland, the FFR reported two cases on February 16. One positive, that of a member of the technical staff, in this case a physical trainer, whose identity has not been specified.
Who is patient zero?
The other “suspicious and unproven” concerns Fabien Galthié. After a new test carried out during the day, the coach is diagnosed positive. The dominoes fall one after the other. There followed a cascade of contaminations with, in less than a week, eleven infected players including eight holders in Dublin and two other members of the staff, forwards coach William Servat, and Karim Ghezal, co-coach of the conquest. After a lull, the outbreak resumed. On February 25, a new player from the XV of France tested positive. The balance sheet rises to sixteen contaminated. The ax falls the same day. The game against Scotland is postponed indefinitely. The Blues are placed in solitary confinement.
So much for the sporting aspect. Politics takes over. Because a question arises: how could the health bubble created around the France group be burst? The hypotheses abound. For the vice-president of the FFR, Serge Simon, no doubt. “Patient zero, we know him: he is our physical trainer,” he said on February 22 in an interview with Noon Olympic.
How did he contract the virus? In contact with the France sevens rugby team, which trained with the XV of France and some of whose players tested positive before Ireland-France? “Scientifically, there is nothing to confirm or deny it, we have no explanation on this subject. Our only certainty is that no XV player has been infected by a player from France 7, since the positive cases of this week are transmissions within the XV group of France”, adds Serge Simon.
Suspicions about Fabien Galthié
According to The Team, this designation goes badly internally, in the staff as well as among the players. And for good reason: many suspect coach Fabien Galthié of having pierced the health bubble on Monday February 15, during the preparation for France-Ireland. The group was then obliged to stay in Marcoussis, base camp of the Blues. Nothing says that this possible violation of the protocol explains the birth of the epidemic focus. But this situation is disturbing. For his part, Fabien Galthié assures The Team that “all (his) actions” had been “in accordance with the health protocol”.
In this kind of situation, the temptation is strong to redo the film. At the start of the preparation in Nice at the end of January, Galthié benefited from thirty-seven selectable players, plus five training partners. The number of players was finally reduced to thirty-one to reduce the back and forth between the bubble and the clubs and thus the risk of contamination. But for the oppositions in training, in Nice then in Marcoussis, the staff had called on the French septists. The latter trained in the same place and also had to respect a health protocol.
In the Alpes-Maritimes, the players and staff were also not confined 100% of the time to their privatized hotel. At the end of January, they had visited, masked, the staff of the university hospital center of Nice, as the CHU had tweeted. The Tournament having been suspended last weekend, the players were also entitled to a few days off to join their families. Difficult under these conditions to know the exact origin of the cluster.
The Ministry of Sport calls for an investigation
The case took on a political dimension, in the midst of an epidemic resurgence. Roxana Maracineanu asked the president of the French Rugby Federation Bernard Laporte to launch an investigation and asked the Ministry of Health “in order to understand how the chain of contamination was formed” within the XV of France. “If nothing ever happens, if we don’t look for this chain of contamination and we don’t have an explanation of how it could have happened, then the authorization that was given (to play in the Six Nations Tournament) can be withdrawn”, warned the minister on Friday on The L’Equipe channel.
Asked about possible negligence by the Blues, in particular during the trip of the XV of France to Italy at the beginning of February, the minister explained: “I do not think that it was marked in the protocol that the players could go out to eat waffles. Or so, if they go out to eat waffles, they had to be retested when they re-entered the bubble in contact with others”. “We want to know if it has been done because it is the conditions of entry and exit in the bubble that make there is a bubble,” she added.
The Prime Minister spoke on the subject Thursday during his press conference. Asked about possible sanctions if it turns out that the protocol has not been respected, Jean Castex indicated that the players “are already sanctioned themselves for not being able to play, they are very unhappy about it”. “Let’s not prejudge in any way the consequences that may be given to all this,” he added. The case sounds in any case like a false start for this new XV of France