Antoine Dupont ‘slags’ off Caelan Doris in good-natured law debate as France star ‘delighted’ by changes
Ireland captain Caelan Doris on the exchange with Antoine Dupont at the Six Nations launch. (image credit: Inpho Photography)
As the Irish would say, Antoine Dupont has some decent craic as the France captain gave as good as he got in an exchange with Ireland skipper Caelan Doris.
The pair engaged in a good-natured debate during the Six Nations launch which centred around the law trials that have been introduced since January, 1.
Dupont-Doris banter
World Rugby announced the implementation of these trials late last year with the changes having a huge impact on the set-pieces while scrum-halves have been provided more protection.
Dupont is clearly one of the best players in the world and the alternations to the lawbook provide the France number nine more space and time at the back of rucks, mauls and scrums.
The same is true for one of the best number eights in the game, Doris, as opposing scrum-halves can no longer progress past the midway point of a scrum.
Law 9.19.30a now reads: “Once play in the scrum begins, the scrum-half of the team not in possession: a. Takes up a position near the scrum, no further than the centre line of the tunnel.”
Additionally, on rucks law 15.18 reads: “A player who is, or was part of the ruck may not play an opponent who is near it (within 1m), and who is attempting to play the ball away. Sanction: Penalty”
And on mauls, 16.18 adds: “A player who is, or was part of the maul may not play an opponent near it (within 1m), and who is attempting to play the ball away. Sanction: Penalty”
Speaking to the media, Doris revealed the back-and-forth with Dupont with the Ireland captain stating that there is already an uptick of forwards picking and driving around the rucks and at the back of scrums.
“I think we’re even seeing in the last couple of weeks a bit more picking from the base, which I enjoy doing a lot,” said Doris.
“The backs don’t always like it. Selfishly, they want to have a crack with the ball but I think we’ll probably see a bit more of that coming in across teams definitely.”
While it is beneficial for the forwards, Dupont was quick as ever to remind the Ireland loose forward that it can favour the backs too.
He added: “Dupont was slagging me earlier on saying that the other rule won’t favour me. He’s delighted about it!”
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The challenge that England pose
Looking ahead to Ireland’s opening game of the Six Nations, Doris is wary of the threat that England pose despite Steve Borthwick’s side’s poor results in 2024.
England went on a run of five straight defeats losing on three occasions to the All Blacks and once to South Africa and Australia before breaking that streak versus Japan.
However, the Ireland skipper still believes that England are a quality side and pointed to the last time that the two sides met in the Six Nations when a Marcus Smith drop goal sealed a 23-22 win for the Red Rose.
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“They are a quality team that fell on the wrong side of quite a few results lately but we saw their quality over in Twickenham last year,” he said.
“They got a pretty good, convincing, win over us especially that first half performance was really strong.
“Throughout the Autumn they showed their quality too, if you look at their depth, their playing group, the coaches they have; you can’t but see their quality.
“If you look back just six months prior to playing us, they were in a semi-final of the World Cup so there is no doubting their quality and the group they have, it’s going to be very competitive.”
