French media rips into ‘lost’ Antoine Dupont replacement’s performance
France scrum-half Antoine Dupont and an image of Maxime Lucu during the Guinness 6 Nations match between France and Ireland.
The French media ripped into Maxime Lucu’s performance, who replaced Antoine Dupont in the starting XV, after Les Bleus’ heavy loss to Ireland in the Six Nations opener.
Ireland racked up their highest-ever tally in France, scoring 38 points to Fabien Galthie’s side’s 17, and the reviews from the local media have not made for pleasant reading.
Lock Paul Willemse was red carded in the fixture, which has led to plenty of criticism, but he is not the only one, as Lucu’s performance has also been heavily scrutinised.
The Bordeaux scrum-half was handed the starting number nine jersey with Dupont taking a break from international rugby in order to chase his Olympic dream with the sevens side.
Lost and overwhelmed
Respected outlet Midi Olympique wrote that Lucu looked ‘overwhelmed’ and ‘lost’ during his 64-minute shift and was outplayed by Ireland’s Jamison Gibson-Park.
His performance only warranted a 2.5 out of 10 rating, in their opinion.
“An encouraging start with a good first kick of the game and then he was in a black hole for 30 minutes,” they wrote.
“Hesitant, multiplying bad choices and sometimes charged down (by Ryan Baird, 20th), the usual understudy of Antoine Dupont appeared overwhelmed by the speed of the Irish three-quarters. Lucu thus missed two tackles on Gibson-Park, then Nash. To his credit, a good offensive tackle from the start of the second period, which does not make us forget the four he missed.”
His rating was the second worst in the team, with Willemse rated 2/10 for what they described as a ‘nightmarish evening’.
Gael Fickou and Jonathan Danty were also slammed for their performances as they were rated 3/10 while Francois Cros was rated the best in the starting XV with a 6/10.
Meanwhile, L’Equipe were also not pleased by Lucu’s performance but marked him at a slighter better 3/10.
“Bad choices and little mistakes,” L’Equipe wrote.
The thoughts of the French press were shared by many onlookers on social media platform X, formerly Twitter.
“France would be better with Dupont at 9, though Lucu is exceptional usually. But, I’d say it’s a minor point as to why they’ll lose this game. They’ve struggled to get anything at the breakdowns and haven’t taken care of the ball,” analyst Sam Larner wrote.
Lucu avec Lucu avec le
l’UBB XVdeFrance pic.twitter.com/ZNDVi6dw1y— Paul Blaque (@PaulBlaque1) February 3, 2024
Scotland next up
Despite the result, Galthie suggested that he wouldn’t be making sweeping changes for France’s second match to face Scotland next week.
“A defeat to open the Six Nations is definitely not a positive,” said Galthie.
“It’s a defeat with its negative associations. We have to live with this as a squad. It’s a tough time, but the tournament carries on. We still have four matches to play, with Scotland next up in eight days.”
