France boss slams Ireland challenge that could end Antoine Dupont's season

France boss Fabien Galthié blasted the challenge that could have ended Antoine Dupont's season as "reprehensible" after Les Bleus obliterated Ireland's Grand Slam dreams in Dublin.

The visitors' 42-27 triumph at the Aviva Stadium puts them in pole position to win the Six Nations - victory over Scotland in Paris next Saturday will clinch the title - while England can put themselves in contention by beating Italy on Sunday.

Ireland must beat Italy in Rome next weekend to retain now very slim hopes of winning a record third consecutive championship.

Dupont had to be helped off in the 28th minute after suffering a knee injury when caught at a ruck.

Referee Angus Gardner dismissed it as simply an unfortunate rugby injury, a view backed up by Ireland interim head coach Simon Easterby.

Later, however, Galthié confirmed that France will cite Tadhg Beirne and Andrew Porter for their part in the incident.

"There is a suspicion of a quite serious knee injury to Antoine," said Galthié. "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.

"We have also highlighted Calvin Nash to the citing commissioner for (the second half incident with) Pierre-Louis Barassi, who did not respond well to the HIA protocol. We had players who never came back on.

"We are angry and we want an explanation; so, we have cited two players. We must protect our players. There are rules, regulations... there's a sort of anger.

"I do not want to pass judgment on the quality of refereeing today. The citing commissioner will decide whether these actions were reprehensible or not."

Speaking separately to France 2 TV, Galthié commented: "We feel bad for (Antoine). 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."

Maxime Lucu, who replaced Dupont, commented: "Antoine's injury hurt us a little, we had to pick up the torch. We know what Antoine gives to the group. We had to pay him a little tribute, we saw him in tears in the locker room."

France led 8-6 at the break before Dan Sheehan's converted try put Ireland into the lead early in the second half, only for Les Bleus to deliver a four-try blitz to race into an unassailable 42-13 lead.

Ireland's two-try finish only put a little more respectability on the scoreboard as a trio of greats - Peter O'Mahony, Cian Healy and Conor Murray - said a sad farewell on their final appearance at Test level at the Aviva.

Easterby later defended his players over the Dupont controversy “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," he said.

“This happens unfortunately. 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. The guy that Tadhg hit was hit onto Dupont and it’s just one of those things unfortunately.

"It happens in a game. I’ll probably have to look back on it again but we feel like the right decision was made there.”

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