The French international player Mohamed Haouas will not play the next Rugby World Cup, which begins in September in Paris, after his recent sentence to one year in prison for sexist violence, announced today the coach, Fabien Galthié. The French national coach explained in a press conference that he called the player on the phone last week: “I announced to him that he would not be selected. Very easy. He told me that he understood.”

He added that the player apologized to both the technical staff of the national team and the other players.

Hauas was sentenced on May 30 to one year in prison for having assaulted his wife in a shopping center, although the judge agreed to an adaptable sentence, so he will not have to spend twelve months behind bars.

The attack occurred in a shopping center in Montpellier, whose security cameras recorded how the player, who weighs more than 120 kilos, chases his wife, hits her several times and then grabs her.

29 years old and with 16 international caps, Haouas plays in the prop position, and until this season he has dressed in the colors of Montpellier.

After the conviction of the Correctional Court of Montpellier (southeast), Clermont-Ferrand, the team with which the player had committed himself for the next season, announced that Houas “will not be able to wear the colors of our club on the field.”

The athlete tried to justify himself during the hearing by explaining that he saw his wife and the mother of his two children smoke, and that although “he has the right to smoke”, he got angry because he considered that he had been deceived. “I told myself that if he can lie for the cigarette, he can lie for other things,” he added after pointing out that he had acted like this out of jealousy.