By Charlie Morgan
A “gravely dangerous” incident was narrowly avoided after a pre-match malfunction resulted in a parachutist crashing into the awning of the Stadium de Toulouse prior to the Champions Cup tie against Sale Sharks.
Kick-off was delayed by 40 minutes after the parachutist, Captain Yannick Trouillet, was left hanging helplessly around 30 metres above the ground. He had been supposed to deliver the match ball before the accident.
The fire brigade rescued the situation more than 25 minutes after the scheduled kick-off time, averting what could have been a horrific incident in front of thousands of watching fans.
In a somewhat comical scene the Toulouse mascot, dressed in a lion costume, sprinted to strip off post protectors in an effort to soften Trouillet’s potential landing. Both teams also contributed tackle shields in a make-shift safety effort.
As the situation became more alarming, spectators were cleared from underneath Trouillet and a large inflatable was brought in from outside the venue and laid down.
The players, who had moved from the pitch into the changing room at about 3.55pm, five minutes before the planned kick-off, did not re-emerge.
Loud cheers greeted the entrance of a fire engine at around 4.20pm and two fireguards were lifted on a cherry-picker to intercept Trouillet and untangle the parachute.
The paratrooper hangs from the stadium roof.Credit: Getty Images
Asked about the delay and what was going through his mind, Sale director of rugby Alex Sanderson initially had a one-word answer: “Panic”.
“Lads just wanted to know what’s going on,” he continued. “You have a 3½ hour build-up and you try to regulate emotion levels so they don’t peak, trough, peak, trough, and you get adrenal burnout potentially.
“So I had to keep doing shuttle runs from the sideline to [tournament organisers] EPCR [European Professional Club Rugby] and eventually we agreed, after we took our tackle pads over – we can smile now but it was gravely dangerous – but as soon as the fire engine got him down, we had 15 minutes and then we could plan. There’s no doubt there was a little bit of disruption.”
The paratrooper hangs 30m above the ground.Credit: Getty Images
Trouillet had been the third parachutist to fly in, the first two having landed safely as part of the pre-match display. As it happened, his rescue hastened the return of the players to the field, where they underwent a second warm-up.
“That was a bit mental,” said Ben Curry, the Sale captain. “Hopefully, he’s all right. I don’t think they’re going to be doing that again anytime soon.
“Al [Sanderson] was really good. He is very good at managing situations and you’ve just got to get on with it.
“It’s very French, isn’t it? Coming here, we knew there would be a lot of challenges and that threw another one in there. We were ready for a challenging day, but I don’t think that was in our perception of what the game was going to throw at us.”
A statement issued by EPCR on Sunday evening outlined that Dominic McKay, the organiser of the Champions Cup, had spoken to Trouille.
“Following the incident at Stadium de Toulouse, we would like to extend our sincere thanks to all involved at the stadium, both clubs and the emergency services for safely returning the parachutist to the ground,” said McKay.
“The safety of the individual and of spectators in the stadium is of the utmost priority. We will pick up with Stade Toulousain and the stadium in due course.”
Holders Toulouse went on to book their place in the quarter-finals with a 38-15 victory.
London Telegraph
