BUENOS AIRES: France captain Baptiste Serin said on Saturday his side had experienced a “terrible” week following a 33-25 defeat by Argentina in Buenos Aires, which came hours after two members of the visitors’ squad were charged with rape and beating a woman.

France forwards Hugo Auradou, 20, and flanker Oscar Jegou, 21, were arrested on Monday and formally charged on Friday after a woman accused them of raping her multiple times and beating her in a hotel room in the city of Mendoza after last weekend’s first Test. The players have denied the accusation, and say sexual relations with the woman were consensual. Serin’s side were also without full-back Melvyn Jaminet after he was removed from the squad on Sunday for making racist comments in a video on social media.

Prop Thomas Gallo scored twice for the hosts, who levelled the two-match series after losing last Saturday to claim a first win over France since 2016. “It’s hard to find the words, because we experienced a terrible week,” Serin told Canal+.

“We wanted the tour to be unforgettable, but unforgettable on the field. “Things have happened which don’t reflect what we want to reflect, I won’t go into details. Today, I’m proud of what we did on the field.” Youngster Mickael Guillard and veteran flanker Judicael Cancoriet replaced Auradou and Jegou in the starting line-up as Fabien Galthie’s second-string side eyed a first series success over Los Pumas since 1998.

Another player missing was scrum-half Antoine Dupont as French rugby’s poster boy prepares to play sevens at this year’s Paris Olympics. Argentina head coach Felipe Contepomi handed flanker Pablo Matera his 100th cap for the game at a sold-out Estadio Jose Amalfitani, having lost his first game in charge of the team seven days ago.

Half-time lead

Galthie’s side began sluggishly lacking possession and territory before Dupont’s stand-in Serin pounced on an Argentina error to open the scoring after 10 minutes. The teams were level by the end of the first quarter as prop Eduardo Bello responded for the visitors with Santiago Carreras’ conversion making it 7-7. Contepomi’s outfit continued to dominate and led 21-10 at the break after the referee awarded the hosts a penalty try after a powerful scrum and fly-half Carreras crashed over after France outside-half Antoine Hastoy kicked a penalty.

Les Bleus returned from the interval better and were back ahead with half an hour remaining as Pau team-mates Emilien Gailleton and Theo Attissogbe scored to make it 25-21.

Argentina’s hopes of a first win over France in five games were handed a boost as Les Bleus prop Georges-Henri Colombes was shown a yellow card for a high tackle on lock Lucas Paulos with 23 minutes to go. The hosts made Colombes’ absence count as 25-year-old Gallo crossed twice, with Carreras converting one of the tries, to take the score to 33-25 with 13 minutes left.—AFP