France head coach Fabien Galthie has labelled the Irish clear-out on Antoine Dupont which brought about a suspected “serious knee injury” as “reprehensible”, calling for Tadhg Beirne and Andrew Porter to be cited.
France captain and talisman Dupont limped off within the first half of Saturday’s 42-27 Six Nations victory over Eire in Dublin, with referee Angus Gardner ruling the reason for the damage as an unlucky rugby incident, and so not foul play.
On replays, Dupont’s leg seems to be inadvertently trapped in a ruck as Beirne – with Porter in shut attendance – enter to take away him as a breakdown menace.
Galthie was extraordinarily sturdy on the incident post-match, although, and believes each gamers needs to be cited and suspended.
“We felt bad for Antoine Dupont. On the act [ruck clear-out], which is in my opinion reprehensible, there are ways to study and look at this act. We felt very bad for him. He is suffering, we are suffering with him,” Galthie informed France 2 at full-time.
Galthie added at his post-match press convention: “For Antoine, there may be suspicion of a reasonably critical knee damage. I will not go into particulars attributable to medical confidentiality, however Antoine is struggling.
“We now have advisable gamers to look earlier than the Six Nations disciplinary committee: Tadhg Beirne and Andrew Porter. Calvin Nash has additionally been advisable for the Pierre-Louis Barassi [high tackle] as a result of he didn’t reply favorably to the HIA protocol.
“Our players did not return to the pitch. We would like to understand why. On this issue, we are angry.
“We want to protect our players, there are rules. The citing commissioner must study the actions and decide if they are reprehensible or not. Neither Antoine nor Pierre-Louis returned to the pitch. One for a clear-out, the other for a [head] contact.
“When Antoine Dupont has to go off, we deliver on Max Lucu, in whom we’ve whole confidence. He was unbelievable. He took management of the sport and made a really, very high-level return. I am very completely satisfied for Max.”
Lucu: Dupont was in tears in dressing room | Cros: Dupont was really struggling, it gave us motivation
France replacement scrum-half Maxime Lucu, who came on for Dupont, told media…
“We all know what Antoine provides to the group. We needed to pay tribute to him, we noticed him in tears within the dressing room.
“We had to remobilise and give him this victory.”
France back-row ahead François Cros informed media…
“It’s never easy to see a team-mate go off, especially Antoine. We’ll wait for the medical results, but at half-time, he was really struggling.
“It gave us much more motivation. We additionally needed to win for him, to verify every little thing he gave on the sphere wasn’t in useless.
“We’re super proud to give him this big victory today.”
Easterby: Nothing unlawful in Beirne’s clear-out of Dupont – a type of issues that occurs sadly
Eire interim head coach Simon Easterby informed media at his post-match press convention…
“I think it’s just a rugby incident where Tadhg [Beirne] cleans out someone in front of Antoine Dupont and he gets hit on the back of that. It happens, unfortunately.
“Gamers have an actual consciousness now of clearing out on the decrease limb of the participant, which might create that kind of damage, however that wasn’t the case.
“He was securing his own ball and not making contact on Dupont. It’s just one of those things unfortunately. It happens in the game.”
What’s subsequent?
Eire full their championship away to Italy on the Stadio Olimpico in Rome subsequent Saturday March 15 (2.15pm kick-off).
France host Scotland of their final sport of the championship as they play the ultimate Take a look at of three on Saturday March 15 (8pm kick-off).
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