Former French rugby captain Marc Cécillon will appear in court on Monday charged with shooting his wife dead in a drunken rage at a party, news agency AFP reported today.
Cécillon, 47, allegedly fired five shots from his .357 Magnum at his 44-year-old wife Chantal while 60 witnesseslooked on in horror on August 7 2004.
His wife died of wounds to the chest, head and arm at the scene at Saint-Savin, near the central-eastern city of Lyon.
The towering and imposing Cécillon, who was capped 46 times from 1988-95 and was a five-time captain of the French rugby team, was drunk at the time of the shooting and did not realise his wife was dead until he woke up in jail early the following morning, AFP reported police as saying.
According to witnesses, Cécillon had been quite drunk at the party and was asked to leave after slapping the hostess. He returned a half hour later saying he wanted to bid everyone goodbye but then pulled out a gun and shot his wife.
Best known as a rampaging flanker, Cécillon played for Bourgoin for 23 years before finally retiring in 1999. He had tried a job as a salesman of artificial sports turf when his professional career ended, but that went nowhere.
He returned to his Bourgoin club when the club chairman there took pity on him and offered him a position as general manager, mostly involved in corporate box sales.
