Police monitor internet for footage of attack on French rugby player

Police are monitoring the internet for video footage of an attack on French rugby player Mathieu Bastareaud at the weekend.

Bastareaud suffered a suspected broken eye socket and needed four stitches to his face after a group of four or five men attacked him in central Wellington early yesterday.

The 20-year-old centre was so badly injured by the apparently unprovoked assault he had to return home and miss his team's test against the Wallabies this weekend.

Police said they spoke with Bastareaud today, but his recollection of the attack was bleary.

Wellington area commander Inspector Pete Cowan said it was possible one of the attackers may have recorded the incident on a cellphone and police were monitoring the internet in case any footage surfaced.

Bastareaud was targeted as he went to get a taxi to take him back to the team's hotel just hours after France's 14-10 second test defeat by New Zealand.

Despite the French team not laying a complaint because Bastareaud could not identify his attackers, police were appealing to the public for any witnesses to the incident.

Meanwhile, Rugby World Cup organisers said they would take the attack into account when deciding what security measures would be put in place during the tournament in 2011.

Rugby New Zealand 2011 general manager for tournament services Nigel Cass told NZPA they were working with police on the development of high-level security framework for the World Cup tournament.

"That involves a number of levels of risk assessment and the number of levels of planning - both around the tournament itself, but around the individual teams," he said.

"Clearly the events over the weekend are just another factor that we'll need to take into account in terms of that high level planning."

He hoped New Zealand's safe reputation had not been badly tarnished since the attack on Bastareaud.

"We'll be working very hard both to ensure the teams and the fans that come here from offshore are safe, but also to encourage New Zealanders to take their responsibilities as hosts very seriously."

One of the great things about rugby was that teams played hard on the field, but shared a beer immediately afterwards, Mr Cass said.

New Zealand and touring fans needed to adopt that ethos, he said.

However, all teams would also be receiving protocols on how to stay safe during the tournament, Mr Cass said.

"It's about letting teams know it's a very safe country, but as with most safe countries, wandering about by yourself at 2am does have some risks and they do need to be aware of that and plan for it.

"We'll also be making sure there are very clear lines of communication between the teams, ourselves and the police so that if anything happens we can take action very quickly."