Simon Easterby slams France boss who created a ‘sh**storm of abuse’ after ‘unnecessary’ Antoine Dupont remarks
Ireland coach Simon Easterby.
Ireland interim head coach Simon Easterby has blasted the actions of France boss Fabien Galthie following the injury to Antoine Dupont last weekend.
Les Bleus skipper Dupont ruptured his ACL in France’s 42-27 win at the Aviva Stadium, for which Galthie directly blamed Irish forwards Tadhg Beirne and Andrew Porter and accused the pair of purposefully injuring his scrum-half.
“We want explanations,” said Galthie after the game. “We have to protect our players. There are means, there are rules. There is some kind of anger.”
He later cited the pair for their part in the incident, which he described as ‘reprehensible’, but this was dismissed.
Simon Easterby blasts Galthie for ‘unnecessary’ remarks
Noise surrounding the incident from the Ireland camp has been kept to a minimum this week, with only Porter coming out and speaking publicly about it, however, the Ireland boss has now had his say on the matter.
“Without getting myself into trouble here, I just think it’s the game, unfortunately,” Easterby told members of the media ahead of his side’s clash with Italy this weekend.
“No player goes out to intentionally injure another player. For everyone looking at it afterwards, it felt like it was just a rugby incident which was really unfortunate.”
He later took a swipe at Galthie for creating a “sh*tstorm” with his remarks.
“Whatever the insinuations were from different people post-game is disappointing,” he continued.
“The unfortunate thing is that people who don’t really understand the game pick up on it, and it creates a bit of a sh*tstorm where people are getting abuse.
“It’s just unnecessary and unacceptable, but it happens. Those things could have been avoided had maybe other things been said post-game by certain individuals.”
He added: “It could have been handled in a better way and on the back of that it’s created some unnecessary ill-feeling and it has affected other people in the wider group.”
Ireland now turn their attention to Italy in Rome, where they could still lift the Six Nations title if results go their way elsewhere.
