The controversy around the cluster within the French rugby team is not weakening.
The Minister of Sports has requested an internal investigation from the boss of the FFR Bernard Laporte, which must be returned on Tuesday.
But other voices are rising to demand an independent investigation.
DECRYPTION
A report and questions.
While the French rugby team was to face Scotland on Sunday as part of the Six Nations Tournament, the match had to be postponed after the emergence of a cluster of Covid-19 within the Blues.
Since then, the Minister for Sports Roxana Maracineanu has urged the French Rugby Federation (FFR) to assume its responsibilities and shed light on possible failures.
At the center of criticism, the FFR is divided.
Who is "patient zero"?
Sixteen positive cases in just over a week have been identified within the Blues.
But who is the first to be infected?
The FFR may have found the ideal culprit, and pleads the thesis of the entry of the virus via a player of the team of France to seven who had participated in training with the "quinzistes" in Marcoussis, before the duel in Ireland, February 14.
But the vice-president of the FFR Serge Simon held another speech Monday in an interview at
Midi Olympique.
"Our only certainty is that no player in the XV has been infected by a player from France 7, since the positive cases this week are transmissions within the XV group of France."
And to assure: "The patient zero, we know him: he is our physical trainer."
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If the latter was the first case of Covid-19 communicated on Tuesday February 16, Fabien Galthié had also been diagnosed positive the same day.
Bernard Laporte confirmed Sunday on France 3 that the coach of the Blues, suspected of having violated the health protocol, had left the bubble to attend, masked, a match of his son in Paris.
"I do not see where there would be a problem there," said Laporte, reaffirming his support.
"We want to understand who brought in this virus and how it spread to others," Roxana Maracineanu insisted on Sunday on Europe 1. An internal investigation requested by the minister from Bernard Laporte must be made public on Tuesday .
Have the Blues broken the health bubble?
On the Équipe channel, the minister was clear.
"A bubble, you have to be careful not to get out of it. In the protocol that was presented to us, there are very strict conditions for exits and returns. You have to be tested when you return to the bubble", a she recalled.
Bernard Laporte had recognized on RMC Sport that himself and players "walked in the street" in Rome "with masks", before the match against Italy on February 6 (50-10).
“But that doesn't mean breaking the bubble; that!” He said.
For its part, the newspaper
L'Équipe
claims to have seen players eating waffles in a street in the Italian capital.
For the former coach of the XV of France, "it is the notion of a bubble that is not well understood".
"If we are not allowed to eat a waffle or go for a jog ...", he said Sunday on France 2, before ensuring that the notion of bubble, "it does not is not 'we are locked in Marcoussis'. This is not the protocol ".
Except that it is on the basis of this sanitary protocol that the government authorized the French to compete in the Six Nations Tournament.
️ "It's a bubble that is not foolproof."
@BernardLaporte_, president of @FranceRugby, spoke in # Stade2 on the health protocol implemented within # XVdeFrancepic.twitter.com / CChf5twWfk
- France tv sport (@francetvsport) February 28, 2021
Sanctions in the event of breaches?
If the internal report were to point out clear responsibilities, should we expect sanctions?
"It is the FFR which has disciplinary power. I expect it to exercise it", said Roxana Maracineanu, while estimating that "we must show, when things go wrong , that people assume, that they explain in all transparency why, that they do their
mea culpa
, and then that we start again on good bases ".
"I am waiting for the report to find out if people have faulted," said Bernard Laporte for his part, while assuring that if there were mistakes, there would be sanctions.
Will the investigation be sufficient?
In the world of French rugby, not everyone is convinced by the idea of a report made by the FFR.
Florian Grill, leader of the opposition to the Federation, calls for an independent investigation.
"The investigation carried out by the Federation is not sufficient," said this member of the FFR's steering committee on Europe 1.
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For him, such an investigation would be "easy to do".
"There are about thirty cameras in Marcoussis, we can easily know what happened," he continues.
Such an investigation should be carried out, according to him, by the General Inspectorate of Education, Sport and Research (formerly the General Inspectorate of Youth and Sports)
What date for France-Scotland?
For the manager of the Blues Raphaël Ibanez, "at the end of March, that would be ideal", that is to say a week after the official end of the Tournament, so potentially on March 26, 27 or 28.
Problem: the Top 14 play on these dates.
What induces new negotiations with the clubs which would not be delighted by this prospect.
Other tracks are being considered, such as playing on Tuesday, March 9.
It will be up to the Six Nations Committee to decide.