Ireland’s interim head coach, Simon Easterby, has expressed disappointment with comments made by his France counterpart, Fabien Galthié, over Antoine Dupont’s injury. Les Bleus won 42-27 in Dublin on Saturday to end Ireland’s grand slam hopes and move into pole position for the Six Nations title. But the post-match discussion was dominated by the season-ending knee injury suffered by the France captain.
The 28-year-old scrum-half ruptured an anterior cruciate ligament when the Ireland forwards Tadhg Beirne and Andrew Beirne cleared out a ruck. Galthié said the actions of Beirne and Porter were “reprehensible” and reported the pair to the match’s citing commissioner, but no retrospective action has been taken.
Quick Guide
Italy v Ireland
Show
Italy: T Allan; A Capuozzo, J Brex (capt), T Menoncello, M Ioane; P Garbisi, M Page-Relo; D Fischetti, G Lucchesi, S Ferrari, D Lamb, F Ruzza, S Negri, M Zuliani, L Cannone. Replacements: G Nicotera, M Spagnolo, G Zilocchi, N Cannone, M Lamaro, R Vintcent, S Varney, L Marin.
Ireland: H Keenan; M Hansen, G Ringrose, R Henshaw, J Lowe; J Crowley, J Gibson-Park; A Porter, D Sheehan, F Bealham, J Ryan, T Beirne, J Conan, J van der Flier, C Doris (capt). Replacements: G McCarthy, J Boyle, T Furlong, J McCarthy, P O’Mahony, C Murray, S Prendergast, B Aki.
“Without getting myself into trouble here, I just think it’s the game unfortunately,” said Easterby, whose side are preparing to complete the championship away to Italy on Saturday. “No player goes out to intentionally injure another player. For everyone, or for the majority of people watching, looking at it afterwards, everyone felt like it was a rugby incident that was really unfortunate.
“Whatever the insinuations were from different people post-game, it’s disappointing because people who don’t really understand the game pick up on it.”
Dupont – widely regarded as the world’s best player – was attempting to steal the ball in the 28th minute when Beirne landed on his right leg as Porter joined the ruck.
Easterby said the remarks from the French camp created a situation where “people are getting abuse”. “It’s just unnecessary and not acceptable,” he said. “It happens, we know it happens, but those things could have been avoided had maybe other things been said post-game by certain individuals.
“The French camp have come out pretty strongly and it could have been handled in a better way. On the back of that, it’s created some unnecessary ill-feeling and it has affected other people in the wider group.”
After the loss, Ireland have a slim chance of clinching an historic third consecutive Six Nations title. The fly-half Jack Crowley will start at Stadio Olimpico after being back-up to Sam Prendergast in the first four games. The 25-year-old’s recall comes after reports that he could join Leicester when his Munster contract expires at the end of the season.
Italy’s captain, Michele Lamaro, has been dropped to the bench as one of seven changes for the match in Rome. The flanker, who had started 24 consecutive matches in the championship, is replaced by Manuel Zuliani, while centre Juan Ignacio Brex takes over the captaincy.
Galthie did not further address the Dupont incident when announcing his team to host Scotland. He has made two changes, bringing in Maxime Lucu for Dupont and centre Gaël Fickou for the concussed Pierre-Louis Barassi. “We have great ambition and high standards to take the French team to the top no matter what happens,” Galthie said. “Last weekend’s result made that a reality but our challenge this weekend calls that achievement into question.”
Quick Guide
France v Scotland
Show
France: T Ramos; D Penaud, G Fickou, Y Moefana, L Bielle-Biarrey; R Ntamack, M Lucu; J-B Gros, P Mauvaka, U Atonio, T Flament, M Guillard, F Cros, P Boudehent, G Alldritt (capt). Replacements: J Marchand, C Baille, D Aldegheri, H Auradou, E Meafou, O Jégou, A Jelonch, N Le Garrec.
Scotland: B Kinghorn; D Graham, H Jones, T Jordan, D Van der Merwe; F Russell (co-capt), B White; P Schoeman, D Cherry, Z Fagerson, G Brown, G Gilchrist, J Ritchie, R Darge (co-capt), M Fagerson. Replacements: E Ashman, R Sutherland, W Hurd, J Gray, M Sykes, B Muncaster, J Dobie, S McDowall.
There will be several records for France to beat with Damian Penaud hoping to become their top try scorer after he equalled Serge Blanco’s record of 38 against Ireland. Their full-back, Thomas Ramos, is six points from Frédéric Michalak’s national record of 436 points and winger Louis Bielle-Biarrey needs one try to match the all-time, century-old, record of eight by a player in a Six Nations competition. France will surpass England’s 2001 record of 29 tries in a campaign if they cross the whitewash four times.
Gregor Townsend, however, believes Scotland have shown enough quality against France in recent seasons to go to Paris with optimism despite describing the trip as “probably the biggest challenge in world rugby right now”.
The past three meetings have been decided by three or four points, while Scotland – who won in Paris in 2021 – were in contention for victory on their last Six Nations trip to the French capital two years ago, until the hosts scored late to seal a 32-21 win.
“We’ve gone well in this fixture, our players are a quality group, they thrive in that atmosphere,” said Townsend. “They thrive with the challenge and this is what we’re asking them to do again.”
Townsend has made two changes to the side that started the 35-29 win over Wales, both in the pack. The 23-year-old Glasgow forward Gregor Brown makes his first Six Nations start in place of Jonny Gray in the second row and Matt Fagerson replaces the injured Jack Dempsey at No 8.