Five rugby players appear in French court in trial over rape of student

Five former players of the leading French rugby team Grenoble will go on trial starting Monday. Three of them are accused of raping a student after a game in 2017.

The trial in the southwestern city of Bordeaux, the scene of the alleged rape, will focus on whether the woman, now 27, was too drunk to consent to sex.

“What is consent? At what point is it diminished or even completely absent?” one of her lawyers, Anne Cadiot-Feidt, told the French news agency AFP.

The plaintiff, who is only named as V., has, according to her lawyers, chosen anonymity to protect her private and professional life.

30-year-old Irishman Denis Coulson, 34-year-old New Zealander Rory Grice and 29-year-old Frenchman Loick Jammes are accused of raping the plaintiff.

Two teammates, 31-year-old Irishman Chris Farrell – a member of Ireland’s Grand Slam-winning team at the 2018 Six Nations – and 30-year-old New Zealander Dylan Hayes, are on trial for failing to prevent crime.

V. and two friends met the rugby players in a bar in Bordeaux after the Grenoble team played a Top 14 championship match on March 11, 2017 – a few months before the #MeToo movement emerged in the United States.

The group drank cocktails, including mojitos and vodka-Red Bull, and then moved on to a nightclub.