Jarring footage emerges of Antoine Dupont injury as furious France boss promises citings
Fabien Galthie has stated that France will report three Ireland players to the citing commissioner.
A furious Fabien Galthie has stated that France will report three Ireland players to the citing commissioner after the 42-27 Six Nations victory at the Aviva Stadium.
Ireland forwards Andrew Porter and Tadhg Beirne are in Galthie’s scope following the injury to France captain Antoine Dupont while winger Calvin Nash completes the trio after his dangerous tackle.
While Porter and Beirne escaped sanctions for their actions at the breakdown which led to Dupont’s withdrawal in the first half-hour, footage of the incident has emerged in the aftermath of the match that suggests there may be merit for Galthie to be seething.
Antoine Dupont injury
Addressing the incident after the victory, Galthie said that Dupont had suffered quite a “serious” injury with the captain now set to miss the final round of Six Nations action.
“There is a suspicion of a quite serious knee injury to Antoine,” the France head coach said. “He is suffering – let’s say it how it is.
“I don’t want to go into details, mainly due to medical confidentiality. We have cited two players – Tadhg Beirne and Andrew Porter – in our post-match report.”
Speaking to France 2 TV, he added: “In terms of the action, in my opinion it was reprehensible, and there are ways to study and analyse it.
“We feel for him today. He is suffering and we are suffering with him.”
Clear targetting of the standing leg of Dupont pic.twitter.com/VE3HMJ9saf
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Ireland interim head coach Simon Easterby also spoke of the injury to Dupont, saying: “I think it’s just a rugby incident where Tadhg cleans out someone in front of Antoine Dupont and he gets hit on the back of that.
“Players have a real awareness now of cleaning out on the lower limb of a player, which can create the type of injury that might have happened today. But that wasn’t the case.
“He was securing his own ball and not making contact on Dupont and unfortunately that happens.”
Nash citing
That incident was not the only thing that left Galthie fuming in the post-match as he was annoyed by Nash’s tackle on Pierre-Louis Barassi, who was forced off with a concussion.
The winger made head-on-head contact with the French centre. Nash was yellow-carded and the incident was sent to be reviewed by the Foul Play Review Officer.
His actions were deemed not to have warranted a red card but Galthie clearly disagrees.
“We have also highlighted Nash to the citing commissioner for Pierre-Louis Barassi, who did not respond well to the HIA (head injury assessment) protocol,” he added.
“We are angry and we want an explanation. We must protect our players. There are rules, regulations. I do not want to pass judgment on the quality of refereeing today.”
