New Zealand rugby player Rory Grice, who was detained in France following a rape complaint, has been released from police custody pending further investigations.
Former NZ Sevens player Rory Grice. Photo: Photosport
Grice, France's Loick Jammes and Ireland's Denis Coulson were detained yesterday after a 21-year-old woman said she had been drugged, taken to a hotel and raped after a French Top 14 game between Bordeaux and Grenoble this month.
Grice is a former Waikato and All Black Sevens player.
"The detention has been lifted," Bordeaux prosecutor Marie Madeleine Alliot said in a statement.
"The investigation will continue in the coming days."
None of the three players have been formally charged.
"It is not a victory but this decision means that things are not that simple, otherwise Loick Jammes would have been charged," said lawyer Bernard Boullou.
Former Toulon player Philip Fitzgerald, who represents Grice, said his client was "cooperating fully" with investigators.
"There is not much in this case. It was a night out between consenting adults," Michele Girot-Marc, a lawyer representing Coulson, told local newspaper Le Dauphine Libere.
Three other players, including former Wallabies flanker Peter Kimlin were released from police custody today but the Bordeaux prosecutor extended the detention of Jammes, Grice and Coulson.