David Campese slams ‘horrendous’ Antoine Dupont clear-out and believes Ireland ‘have form’ in this area
David Campese assesses the incident that caused Antoine Dupont a serious injury in the Six Nations.
Watching the Ireland v France game yesterday I have to make my views known about the horrendous clear-out incident that saw the great Antoine Dupont leave the field with a suspected ACL injury.
For years Ireland and Leinster have been getting away with reckless and wild clearing at the breakdown. It’s co-ordinated chaos in their eyes, but in the eyes of other professional players they consistently go way beyond what’s acceptable on the pitch.
Angus Gardner had a fantastic match generally and his communication and handling of flashpoints was exemplary. However, in the Tadhg Beirne/Andrew Porter incident, you have to wonder if the right outcome was achieved.
Reckless and dangerous
For me, this is down to the questions asked by the refereeing teams. Was the clear-out a clear targeting of the lower limb as the law is written? In all honesty I don’t think it was. However, was it reckless and dangerous, a question that didn’t appear to be asked?
At no point were either Beirne or Porter doing anything to stay on their feet. Coaches often talk about the legal shape of ruck entry as being a plane taking off rather than a plane landing and if you watch the replay the two Irishmen came in like 747s approaching a short runway with reverse thrust on!
At no point were they on their feet and at no point was there a real attempt to stay on them. They clearly went in to clear reckless without wrapping – shoulder contact was the closest they got, arms were wrapped, and for me, there’s no doubt that the actions were both illegal and wholly reckless.
Now, you can’t penalise outcomes all the time and to make a fair assessment you have to remove the obvious emotion and cruel outcome of the world’s best player being cheap shotted off the pitch. Take that out and you have a penalty kick; however then factor in that there was a high degree of recklessness, that at no time were Ireland realistically looking to stay on feet. If you look at Law 9 and then read the notes, point 10 clearly states that ‘charging in without binding’ is considered ‘Dangerous Play’. To that end, and then re-factoring the outcome of a player facing six months to a year out of the game, then the enormity of that clear-out cannot be understated.
Let’s be honest, Ireland have form for this.
For years they’ve pushed the breakdown chaos well past what is either acceptable or safe – just ask Malcolm Marx, a victim of a similar and possibly even worse incident in the summer for South Africa against Ireland. We saw Josh van der Flier flying into a ruck two years ago in the EPCR Champions Cup, clash heads with one of the opposition props and then have the temerity to play the victim to the referee! So I don’t buy Irish innocence in this instance simply because of the amount of previous, proven or unproven, that they have.
Protect its assets
World Rugby have to act; protecting its assets – the players – is a key tenant of their safety protocols and there’s no way that, in a contact situation with 125kg athletes piling in, that players should avoid scrutiny for consistent reckless behaviour that endangers careers.
I know that Fabien Galthie and France have cited Ireland. The wording of that citing is key and I will track it with interest; if the claim is ‘reckless and dangerous play’ then I think we’ll see a lengthy ban incoming – but there’s a further nuance that Porter’s actions changed the actions of Beirne, which is unavoidably true. If the claim is ‘deliberate targeting of the lower limb’ then I think the miscreants will walk away scot-free, ironically something that the great Dupont sadly won’t be doing for a number of months to come.
READ MORE: Jarring footage emerges of Antoine Dupont injury as furious France boss promises citings
