Hacktivists mistakenly attacked a French rugby fansite instead of their intended target, the German stock exchange.

The misdirected assault meant the allezdax.com website, a fan site for French second division side rugby club Dax, was unavailable for two weeks. Meanwhile the hackers' intended target, the German stock exchange (DAX) website, remained up and running as normal.

An administrator of allezdax.com told France Bleu Gascogne radio station that hackers had "insulted us copiously in German". He added: "I only have one thing to say to them: leave us alone!"

The allezdax.com website normally gets around 700 hits per day, mostly (you'd imagine) from local rugby fans. Traffic volumes and visitors swelled during the attack, overwhelming the site's limited resources, the Guardian reports.

The site has now been successfully returned online with a suitably defiant message about improved security. "Having been attacked full-on by a young, spotty Teuton, the site is back with more security," it says.

The whole episode recalls the time last year that geographically mixed-up Algerian hackers defaced the site of Belvoir Castle, home of the Teddy Bear's picnic, instead of their intended target, Belvoir Fortress – a Christian outpost during the Crusades. ®