A rugby player has died after reportedly jumping from a bridge during a night out to celebrate his team’s victory.

Kelly Meafua was found dead on the banks of the Tarn river, in Montauban, southwest France.

The Samoan played for Montauban, a club in the country’s second division, which said in a statement that he died in the early hours of Saturday.

Media reports in France say Meafua jumped off the 72ft-high (22m) Pont-Vieux bridge after leaving a nightclub with friends, following his team’s 48-40 victory against his former club, Narbonne, earlier that evening.

Montauban said one of the 31-year-old’s teammates tried to rescue him and had to be transported to a hospital, where he was treated for hypothermia.

“Kelly was a player who was well liked by everybody. His joy for life was infectious and radiant. Today we have lost a player, a friend and a brother,” the club said.

The former Samoa sevens player moved to France in 2015 to join Narbonne before a return to the southern hemisphere.

He returned to France’s second division in 2018 with Beziers, then signed with Montauban.

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