{"id":265885,"date":"2026-01-27T04:48:13","date_gmt":"2026-01-27T04:48:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/265885\/"},"modified":"2026-01-27T04:48:13","modified_gmt":"2026-01-27T04:48:13","slug":"antoine-dupont-bears-no-ill-will-towards-ireland-pair-over-knee-injury-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/265885\/","title":{"rendered":"Antoine Dupont bears no ill will towards Ireland pair over knee injury \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

France captain Antoine Dupont<\/a> has said he bears no ill will for the incident that his coach, Fabien Galthi\u00e9, described as \u201creprehensible\u201d<\/a> during last season\u2019s 27-42 Six Nations<\/a> Championship win over Ireland at the Aviva Stadium.<\/p>\n

Dupont was speaking as both teams prepare for Thursday week\u2019s Six Nations opener between the countries at the Stade de France (8.10pm, Irish time). <\/p>\n

Dupont suffered an anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) tear after being cleared out at a ruck by Andrew Porter<\/a> and Tadhg Beirne<\/a>. Galthi\u00e9 said post-match to French television: \u201cI don\u2019t want to go into details, mainly due to medical confidentiality. We have cited two players \u2013 Tadhg Beirne and Andrew Porter \u2013 in our post-match report.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn 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.\u201d <\/p>\n

The match citing commissioner examined the incident and adjudicated that the Irish players had no case to answer<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Speaking at the Six Nations launch in Edinburgh, Dupont was asked whether he felt any lingering anger. \u201cHonestly, no. I think it was just an accident. It happens sometimes on the field, unfortunately. I don\u2019t feel that it was intentional; both sent messages on social media, so no I don\u2019t think so.\u201d<\/p>\n

Galthi\u00e9 has called up Joshua Brennan, son of former Ireland, Leinster and Toulouse secondrow Trevor Brennan, for Thibaud Flament, who has withdrawn for personal reasons. La Rochelle<\/a> pair Uini Atonio and Paul Boudehent are also out of the squad and are replaced by Toulouse\u2019s<\/a> George-Henri Colombe and Alexandre Roumat.<\/p>\n

Asked about what Brennan would bring to the squad, Dupont said: \u201cHe\u2019s improving year after year. He\u2019s still a young player. He\u2019s a very tough guy on the field [and is] starting to be a more complete player than when he started. I think he has the potential to be a very good player on an international level.\u201d<\/p>\n

The French captain said the novelty of a Thursday night game was a step into the unknown, but said it would be the same for both teams. The reverse is the case when it comes to facing Ireland, whose players they know all too well from club and international rugby.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we know this team now for the last four or five years. They play the same rugby, but it\u2019s very efficient, very organised. I repeat myself, but every team is very tough when you play against them. The level of the tournament is very high, and I think they\u2019ll probably be even better this year with Andy [Farrell].\u201d<\/p>\n

The six coaches and captains \u2013 England hooker Jamie George stood in for Maro Itoje who missed the launch for personal reasons \u2013 were in Edinburgh to promote the tournament. <\/p>\n

Ireland head coach Andy Farrell<\/a> offered a little clarity on the injury situation. <\/p>\n

Tadhg Furlong<\/a> has a few markers to hit, Tommy O\u2019Brien<\/a> will be fine. Hugo Keenan<\/a> and Jamie Osborne<\/a> are at a similar stage of recovery and both should be fit. Leinster<\/a> confirmed that the unfortunate Jack Boyle has torn his Achilles\u2019 tendon, that Paddy McCarthy<\/a> had surgery and that the only one from the list who might be fit at some point in the Six Nations is Andrew Porter.<\/p>\n

\u201cPorter at this moment in time, all being well, could come back into it towards the latter stages, but when that is I don\u2019t know because there is a process to go through. Let\u2019s see how the other guys are going as well in the meantime,\u201d Farrell said. <\/p>\n

\"BillyBilly Bohan, centre, has been called up to travel with Ireland’s senior squad to their training camp. Photograph: James Crombie\/INPHO <\/p>\n

\u201c[I\u2019m] gutted for him [Boyle] because he was disappointed not to get a game in the autumn and he took it the right way. He went back to his province and played the house down, really showed great character. He would have been hoping for this type of chance with the injuries to Ports and Paddy. So, it\u2019s devastating for him and for us because we would have loved to have seen him take his chance.\u201d<\/p>\n

Boyle\u2019s misfortune provides the 20-year-old Billy Bohan, a grandson of the late Ireland Triple Crown winning coach Mick Doyle, with an opportunity as he was called up to travel with the Ireland senior squad<\/a> to their training camp in Portugal on Sunday, having originally been selected for the Ireland XV squad to play England<\/a> at Thomond Park on Friday week.<\/p>\n

Farrell smiled: \u201c[It\u2019s a] magnificent story. It might have come a little earlier than he or others would have expected, but he\u2019s certainly a talent. We have watched his progress with the 20s and he comes from good stock there with his grandad [Mick Doyle].<\/p>\n

\u201cHe is a student of the game, and he had a big game for Connacht Rugby<\/a> at the opening of their new stand against Leinster. To be the starting prop there says a lot about where he is at this point in time.\u201d<\/p>\n

On the perception that Ireland are vulnerable going into the tournament, he said: \u201cYeah, we were the ones that were being hunted; we\u2019re hunting it ourselves now, aren\u2019t we. So it is what it is. <\/p>\n

\u201cI understand why people would be of such a [opinion], but you know none of it is relevant to us, really. All that matters is how we go about our business and prepare well to hit the ground running hopefully in Paris.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"France captain Antoine Dupont has said he bears no ill will for the incident that his coach, Fabien…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":265886,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[75388,25747,121811,1452,61,60,1449,11287,3654,15551,112,58217],"class_list":{"0":"post-265885","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-andrew-porter","9":"tag-andy-farrell","10":"tag-antoine-dupont","11":"tag-france-rugby","12":"tag-ie","13":"tag-ireland","14":"tag-ireland-rugby","15":"tag-leinster-rugby","16":"tag-rugby","17":"tag-six-nations","18":"tag-sports","19":"tag-tadhg-beirne"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265885","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=265885"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265885\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/265886"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=265885"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=265885"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=265885"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}