Judges in Argentina on Tuesday cleared the France international rugby players Hugo Auradou and Oscar Jégou of raping a 39-year-old woman in a hotel room hours after appearing in the starting line-up for the first time in the senior team.
Auradou and Jégou, both 21, had been under investigation since 12 July for alleged aggravated rape — a charge used for suspected gang rape — in Mendoza, western Argentina.
The men denied the accusation. They claimed the woman, who they had met in a night club in the city, had consented.
Judge Eleonora Arenas dismissed the case against the players. "The facts investigated do not constitute a crime," she told the court in Mendoza.
The men were arrested in Buenos Aires on 8 July as the France squad was preparing to leave for a Test match against Uruguay in Montevideo.
The two players spent several days in detention and almost a month under house arrest in Argentina. They were eventually allowed to leave the country at the start of September, when they returned to France.
Two France rugby players held in Argentina over alleged sexual assault
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"It was very difficult here but we did it," said Rafael Cuneo Libarona, the mens' lawyer in Argentina. "I always believed in the innocence of the players."
Auradou has played eight matches for his club, Section Paloise, since returning to competitive action on on 5 October. Jégou resumed his career on 2 November with Stade Rochelais and has featured in four games.
On Tuesday night, French rugby chiefs said in a statement that the men would again be considered for the national team.
"The French Rugby Federation welcomes this decision with relief and satisfaction," it added. "The Argentine courts have rehabilitated the players."
Bosses at the FFR have acknowledged the 2024 summer tour of South America as a watershed moment in French rugby history.
The reconfiguration started just after the 28-13 victory over Argentina on 6 July with the expulsion from the squad of Matthieu Jamnet for posting a video of himself making racist comments about North Africans.
The video was picked up by La France insoumise politician Sébastien Delogu and widely shared on social media.
France rugby stars accused of rape placed under house arrest in Argentina
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It was followed with the allegations against Auradou and Jégou.
Though the FFR supported the men publicly, behind the scenes, post-match discipline became a battleground for hardliners attempting to crack down on boorish behaviour and traditionalists keen on maintaining the ideal of amiable carousing but with greater vigilance.
In the quest for the top job at the FFR in the autumn, the outgoing president, Florian Grill said he preferred a stricter framework for how players behaved on international duties. Didier Codorniou, his opponent, said he wanted the players punished irrespective of the decisions in Argentina.
Grill won the contest convincingly and his imprint was evident in the FFR's response to the decision of the Argentina judges.
"While the French Rugby Federation is delighted, these events are a reminder of the need to create new conditions to prevent and avoid risky behaviour in top-level rugby, and to train responsible and exemplary players, taking inspiration from the 60,000 volunteers and 2,000 amateur rugby clubs who work every day to create social links and play an educational and civic role as much as a sporting one."
Under Argentine law, the woman's legal team have three days to lodge an appeal. On Tuesday night, her lawyer, Natacha Romero, refused to say if they would attempt to continue.
"We will wait until all avenues have been pursued," said Antoine Vey, the lawyer in France for Auradou and Jégou.
"The Argentinian justice system, which investigated the case on the basis of objective elements such as videos, witness statements and expert reports, was able to state clearly that the events of which the men were accused did not exist."
