Rugby: Two Kiwis among five rugby players facing trial in connection to alleged gang rape in France

Rory Grice, in action for the All Blacks Sevens, in 2010. Photo / Getty Images

Two New Zealanders are among a group of five rugby players that were sent to trial overnight in connection with the alleged gang rape of a young woman in France in 2017.

Former All Blacks Sevens player and Waikato backrower Rory Grice and Marlborough's Dylan Hayes both played for Grenoble rugby club at the time of the incident, along with Munster and Ireland centre Chris Farrell, Frenchman Loick Jammes and Irishman Denis Coulson.

Grice, Jammes and Coulson have denied rape allegations facing them and claim any contact they had with their accuser, a 21-year-old student, was consensual.

Hayes and Farrell, meanwhile, face a lesser charge of "non-prevention of a crime".

The three men charged with rape face up to 20 years in prison, while the maximum punishment for failing to prevent a crime is five years.

On September 22, their case was referred to the Assises Court of Gironde. The players subsequently appealed that decision to the Bordeaux Court of Appeal which upheld the referral of the case to the Assises Court, which is a criminal trial court.

The players are now expected to appeal the referral for a second time - this time to France's highest appeal court, the Cassation - to argue that due process has not been followed and that chances of a fair trial are now slim.

The alleged incident has been described as taking place after the woman met the players at a nightclub in Bordeaux following Grenoble's Top 14 match against Bordeaux-Begles on Saturday, March 11, 2017.

According to reports at the time, the woman claimed she was drugged and raped by three players while two others failed to intervene. French prosecutors allege Coulson recorded a video on his cellphone showing the woman performing sex acts.

The woman later told a taxi driver: "I was raped. There were several of them", before filing a complaint to local police a few hours later.

Denis Dreyfus, a lawyer for Jammes, said the woman's first statement to police described "consensual sex".

However the Bordeaux Court of Appeal's decision "clearly establishes" that "there could not have been consent," according to a spokesman for the woman's legal team.

Grice has been playing rugby professionally in France since 2014 and after the 2017 season signed with Oyonnax, in the country's second division, for whom he has made 91 appearances.

Hayes, meanwhile, also remained in France following the incident, and played two seasons for Agen in the Top 14 division before signing with third division club Valence Romans Drôme Rugby in late 2021.