France scrumhalf Antoine Dupont on Thursday suffered a facial fracture in a high tackle that forced him off the pitch in the hosts’ 96-0 Rugby World Cup thrashing of Namibia.
“Antoine Dupont has suffered a maxillo-zygomatic fracture. A specialist surgical opinion has been requested to determine the exact length of the player’s unavailability. Antoine Dupont remains with the France squad,” the French Rugby Federation said in a statement
The influential Dupont, who had earlier scored a try, left the pitch in Marseille in the 46th minute nursing his right cheekbone after Johan Deysel made a badly-timed head-on-head tackle and was sent off.
Photo: AFP
The possible loss of 26-year-old Dupont, widely regarded as one of the best players in the world, would be a severe blow to France’s chances of winning the Rugby World Cup for the first time.
Namibia coach Allister Coetzee called Deysel’s tackle an “unfortunate accident.”
“This is the way the game’s going,” ex-Springboks coach Coetzee said. “It’s unintentional, it happened so quickly. Dupont is not the tallest guy. Johan is a clean player, he’s got no record of cards in the past and he’s a great defender. It’s not unfair, but it’s a pity it happened to him. He’s the captain, he’s a brave player, he’s the glue of the team and he feels it.”
“It was an accident, an unfortunate one and we had to take that on the chin. He’s cut up right now,” he said.
France coach Fabien Galthie said that the injury to Dupont had taken some of the gloss off a record 14-try victory at Marseille’s Stade Velodrome.
“Of course, when one of our players gets injured, we’re never happy, we’re always extremely concerned,” he said. “It’s not the same thing as if we had no injuries.”
Galthie, who sent a text message to Dupont at the start of the post-match news conference, bristled when questioned if he had thought about replacing the scrumhalf at halftime.
“I knew I was going to be asked this,” the former France captain said. “The program was to change the two props. You can’t change all 15 players at halftime. Our plan was that we’re going to rotate the rest of the squad around the 55th minute. It was all about giving players game time so they don’t stay inactive for a month. This team wanted to be out there playing.”
France flanker Charles Ollivon said it was obvious Deysel’s tackle on Dupont was a nasty one.
“It was pretty late and his head was hit,” Ollivon said. “It was immediately clear to everyone.”
English referee Matthew Carley initially handed Deysel a yellow card, which was upgraded to a red by the bunker review system.
It left Namibia to play the final 35 minutes reduced to 14 men as France ran amok.
Damian Penaud scored a hat-trick of tries, while Jonathan Danty, Ollivon and Louis Bielle-Biarrey each scored two apiece, and Dupont, Thibaud Flament, Baptiste Couilloud and Melyvn Jaminet all also crossed for tries, with a late penalty try completing the rout.
Thomas Ramos hit 12 conversions as the hosts completely dominated the side ranked 22nd in the world, consigning them to a 25th straight Rugby World Cup defeat.
“I must say that’s definitely hurting, a bit of humiliation from our side,” Coetzee said. “Every little mistake got punished and this is what you can expect from a quality side like France. You couldn’t put pressure or punch. When we had the ball we coughed it up, we kicked poorly, just simple basics and we weren’t good enough on that.”
Coetzee said their goal of targeting Uruguay in Lyon on Wednesday next week for a first-ever World Cup scalp was “still alive.”
“It’s a short turnaround, but we have to regroup as quickly as possible. This has been a bit of a horror movie, but we’ve got to get it out the way as quickly as possible and focus on the next one,” he said. “I’m sure when you get the result next week, this will be forgotten for us and it’s mission accomplished for us.”
Additional reporting by Reuters
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