DUBLIN (AP) — France has cited Ireland's Tadhg Beirne and Andrew Porter for their alleged roles in the serious-looking knee injury to Antoine Dupont in their crunch Six Nations match on Saturday.
Dupont was forced off in the 29th minute when his right knee buckled inward as Ireland cleared out a ruck.
Dupont limped off with medical personnel on either shoulder, but even without its talismanic captain and scrumhalf France won the match 42-27.
“We suspect it’s a fairly serious knee injury,” France coach Fabien Galthie said.
"I won't go into details because of medical confidentiality, and we have to wait for more in-depth tests. Antoine is suffering and we are suffering with him.
“We have cited the players summoned to appear before the disciplinary committee: Beirne and Porter on Antoine's injury, (Calvin) Nash on the contact that caused Pierre-Louis Barassi to go off (and he) did not respond to the concussion protocol. Their players returned. On our side, the players did not return. We are angry.”
Barassi failed a head check after a head-on-head tackle by Nash, who was yellow-carded after the second half incident.
“We want to protect our players,” Galthie said. “There are rules, we need to understand.”
Ireland interim coach Simon Easterby put down Dupont's injury “as just a rugby incident.”
“Tadhg cleans out someone in front of Antoine Dupont and he gets hit off the back of it. It happens, unfortunately. Players have a real awareness now of clearing out on the lower limb of the player, which can create that type of injury, but that wasn't the case. He was securing his own ball and not making contact on Dupont. It's just one of those things unfortunately. It happens in the game.”
Moments earlier, Dupont assisted in the first-half try to wing Louis Bielle-Biarrey. France led 5-0 when Dupont left. His replacement, Maxime Lucu, filled in superbly.
“Max Lucu is a very good player and we didn't worry (about losing Dupont),” Bielle-Biarrey said.
The injury put in doubt whether the three-time player of the tournament will be fit to lead title-chasing France against Scotland next Saturday in Paris in the final round.
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AP rugby: https://apnews.com/hub/rugby
The Associated Press
