{"id":497286,"date":"2026-02-22T18:47:10","date_gmt":"2026-02-22T18:47:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/497286\/"},"modified":"2026-02-22T18:47:10","modified_gmt":"2026-02-22T18:47:10","slug":"antoine-dupont-thrives-in-the-chaos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/497286\/","title":{"rendered":"Antoine Dupont &#8216;thrives in the chaos&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Following France\u2019s 33-8 win over Italy in round three of the 2026 Six Nations, here is how we scored Fabien Galthie\u2019s side.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>France player ratings v Italy<\/p>\n<p>15 Th\u00e9o Attissogbe:\u00a0Superb once again, proving he can offer a threat in whatever position <a href=\"https:\/\/www.planetrugby.com\/tag\/fabien-galthie\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Galthie<\/a> wants him to play. Offered his usual threat ball-in-hand with a game-high 20 carries for 64 metres.\u00a07<\/p>\n<p>14 Ga\u00ebl Dr\u00e9an:\u00a0Have <a href=\"https:\/\/www.planetrugby.com\/team\/france\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">France<\/a> uncovered another gem? Always seemed to take the positive option in attack and got the rewards his efforts deserved with a try in the closing stages. 7<\/p>\n<p>13 \u00c9milien Gailleton:\u00a0Another strong outing from the Pau man, who could be cementing himself into that 13 shirt. His breakaway in the first-half was a pivotal moment for his side, and backed that up with some very strong carries across the Test. Eventually got himself over the whitewash as well, which was well-deserved.\u00a07<\/p>\n<p>12 Fabien Brau-Boirie:\u00a0Could copy and paste the above in here, really, following up last weekend\u2019s effort with another good performance. Did exactly what was needed of him whenever called upon on both sides of the ball, and crucially showed some serious maturity at this level.\u00a07<\/p>\n<p class=\"px-3 xs:px-4 mt-3 mb-2 font-semibold leading-snug text-base text-title\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.planetrugby.com\/news\/france-land-timely-blows-to-floor-italy-in-six-nations-as-grand-slam-dream-remains-on-track\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">France land timely blows to floor Italy in Six Nations as Grand Slam dream remains on track<\/a><\/p>\n<p>11 Louis Bielle-Biarrey:\u00a0By no means the absolute barnstormers he\u2019s capable of, but that\u2019s not a criticism. Did very well with what he was given and yet again found himself on the scoresheet as he sets his sights on the top try-scorer award. His pace came to good use in defence on occasion, which was a nice change-up in his game. 7<\/p>\n<p>10 Thomas Ramos:\u00a0It\u2019s always fun when he plays at fly-half, and this was no exception. He will likely owe Attisogbe a coffee after shovelling the ball to him in the build-up to Italy\u2019s try, but aside from that was superb as he injected some serious fizz into Les Bleus\u2019 attack. 7<\/p>\n<p>9 Antoine Dupont (c):\u00a0This was an incredibly breathless Test, but the skipper seemed to thrive in the chaos with another\u00a0classy effort. Be it with the boot or his work around the fringes of the ruck, everything good about France\u2019s performance came via a flash of Dupont quality. 8<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"ps-lazy-img alignnone wp-image-1489520 size-full\" width=\"1600\" height=\"900\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Player-Ratings-key1.jpg\" alt=\"\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Back-row<\/p>\n<p>8 Anthony Jelonch:\u00a0Absolutely ran his blood to water in an unrelenting effort up front. Brought heaps of physicality to proceedings, smashing and bashing his way through the solid Italian pack with 11 carries ball-in-hand alongside a tally of eight tackles and a turnover. 8<\/p>\n<p>7 Oscar Jegou:\u00a0Continues to look comfortable in the Test arena, and could be a cornerstone of this pack for years to come. Consistently came up with big plays on either side of the ball, winning two turnovers and making nine tackles alongside seven carries for 31 metres. 7<\/p>\n<p>6 Fran\u00e7ois Cros:\u00a0Did all the unseen work really well, which is exactly what Galthie would have asked of him. Just adds a sense of stability to the French pack.\u00a07<\/p>\n<p>Want more from Planet Rugby? Add us as\u00a0<a rel=\"noopener nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/preferences\/source?q=planetrugby.com\" target=\"_blank\">a preferred source on Google to your favourites list<\/a>\u00a0for world-class coverage you can trust.<\/p>\n<p>Tight five<\/p>\n<p>5 Emmanuel Meafou:\u00a0Back with a bang, quite literally with his efforts in the tight. Consistently went looking for work on both sides of the ball, making 13 carries and 10 tackles in the process, and brought his delicious offloads to the fray once more.\u00a08<\/p>\n<p>4 Thibaud Flament:\u00a0A strong return to the starting XV for the Toulouse lock. Threw his body into the efforts up front and did very well in the lineout as well.\u00a07<\/p>\n<p>3 Dorian Aldegheri:\u00a0Steady without setting the pitch alight. Held the scrum up for large parts, but did concede a couple of penalties towards the backend of his day.\u00a06<\/p>\n<p>2 Julien Marchand:\u00a0Rock solid once again. Made his tackles when needed, carried hard and was decent with his arrows. 6<\/p>\n<p>1 Jean-Baptiste Gros:\u00a0A decent enough stint from the loosehead. Held his own against a strong Italian scrum and trucked hard in the loose. Just well-executed basics. 6<\/p>\n<p>Replacements:\u00a0Their introduction helped turn the screw for France and powered their way to a dominant victory after what was a pretty close Test throughout. Every member of the bench just brought a fresh edge to the party, with Charles Ollivon, Lenni Nouchi and Peato Mauvaka in particular adding serious intensity to their efforts in the tight, while Pierre-Louis Barassi also looked to get his hands on the ball as much as he could in attack as well. This is what Galthie would have wanted from his replacements.\u00a08<\/p>\n<p>READ MORE: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.planetrugby.com\/news\/gregor-townsend-identifies-the-big-moment-which-was-the-turning-point-in-scotlands-victory-over-wales\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Gregor Townsend identifies the \u2018big moment\u2019 which was the turning point in Scotland\u2019s victory over Wales<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Following France\u2019s 33-8 win over Italy in round three of the 2026 Six Nations, here is how we&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":497287,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,760,85],"class_list":["post-497286","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-rugby","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/497286","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=497286"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/497286\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/497287"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=497286"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=497286"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=497286"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}