France players dedicate Six Nations triumph to ‘hurting’ Antoine Dupont
Antoine Dupont celebrates France's Six Nations victory with his team-mates.
France’s players have dedicated their victorious Six Nations campaign to their captain Antoine Dupont, who missed their triumph over Scotland in Paris on Saturday due to injury.
Les Bleus only needed a victory over the Scots to claim their first Championship victory since 2022 and they did it in style courtesy of a deserved 35-16 triumph at the Stade de France.
It meant that France finished on 21 points at the top of the Six Nations standings, just one point ahead of England who denied Fabien Galthie’s troops a Grand Slam courtesy of a 26-25 win at Allianz Stadium, Twickenham in Round Two.
Talismanic scrum-half Dupont was ruled out of the highly anticipated encounter against Scotland after he ruptured cruciate ligaments in his right knee in France’s Round Four triumph against Ireland at the Aviva Stadium.
Dupont‘s injury means he will be sidelined for six to eight months and although he could not be part of Saturday’s action against Scotland, he joined his team-mates on the field – walking on crutches – to celebrate their Championship triumph.
‘We won it for him’
“He was hurting physically and also mentally this week,” said Maxime Lucu, who took Dupont’s spot in France’s line-up as the starting scrum-half. “We won it for him.”
Meanwhile, star number eight and stand-in skipper Gregory Alldritt also paid tribute to Dupont.
“All we wanted to see tonight was Antoine lifting the trophy and that’s done,” he said.
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France head coach Galthie was a relieved man after the match as things did not always go according to plan against Scotland and Les Bleus’ indiscipline led to hooker Peato Mauvaka and prop Jean-Baptiste Gros spending time in the sin bin.
“We have shed this weight,” said Galthie. “We share our joy and the pleasure with the French people.”
France crossed for four tries against Scotland which means they have set a Six Nations tournament record with 30, one more than England in 2001.
Inside centre Yoram Moefana led the way with a brace of tries while left wing Louis Bielle-Biarrey and full-back Thomas Ramos also crossed the whitewash.
Momentous match for Bielle-Biarrey and Ramos
The victory over the Scots was a momentous match for the latter two as they notched personal milestones.
Bielle-Biarrey’s try meant he scored his eighth try in the Championship which equals the record of England’s Cyril Lowe in 1914 and Scotland’s Ian Smith in 1925 when the competition was the Five Nations.
“I’m very happy,” Bielle-Biarrey said. “But I’m more happy that we won the match.”
Meanwile, Ramos finished with a 20-point haul as he also slotted three penalties and as many conversions to move onto 450 overall and overtake Frédéric Michalak (436) as France’s all-time leading points-scorer.
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