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12:05
Rugby World CupFranceAntoine Dupont

FFR statement: France captain Antoine Dupont

By PA
France's scrum-half and captain Antoine Dupont (R) receives medical attention on the field during the France 2023 Rugby World Cup Pool A match between France and Namibia at the Stade de Velodrome in Marseille, southern France on September 21, 2023. French rugby team captain Antoine Dupont, who underwent surgery for a broken jaw on September 21, 2023 following a shock injury suffered against Namibia at the 2023 World Cup, will rejoin the France squad on September 30, 2023 in Aix-en-Provence, the French Rugby Federation (FFR) announced. (Photo by NICOLAS TUCAT / AFP) (Photo by NICOLAS TUCAT/AFP via Getty Images)

France captain Antoine Dupont has been cleared to return to action following surgery on his facial fracture.

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Scrum-half Dupont became a doubt for the remainder of his country’s home Rugby World Cup after suffering the injury during a 96-0 win over Namibia on September 21.

The French Rugby Federation announced the 26-year-old was back with Fabien Galthie’s squad at their base in Aix-en-Provence.

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Les Bleus play Italy in their final Pool A match on Friday, with a likely quarter-final to come on the weekend of October 14-15.

“Antoine has been given the go-ahead to resume physical activity taking it step by step,” read a statement from the French federation.

“This activity will take place under the supervision of the French national team’s medical staff.”

Dupont was taken off in the 46th minute against Namibia after opposition captain Johan Deysel made a head-on-head tackle and was sent off.

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Deysel was subsequently banned for five matches.

France’s health manager Bruno Boussagol said on Thursday he was “convinced” Toulouse player Dupont would not be available for Les Bleus’ upcoming match with Italy.

Bordeaux’s Maxime Lucu is expected to deputise in Lyon.

France assistant coach William Servat told a press conference on Tuesday he had “no doubts” Dupont would be available for the quarter-finals.

Galthie’s side, who have already beaten New Zealand, Uruguay and Namibia, are likely to face South Africa, Ireland or Scotland in the last eight of the tournament.

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Comments on RugbyPass

J
JW 36 minutes ago
The constant in the All Blacks’ struggles is not the coaches

It was clear when Razor started his tenure his intention was to not use Beauden, how quickly things changed.

104 Go to comments
J
JW 48 minutes ago
The constant in the All Blacks’ struggles is not the coaches

Why have you given up on Jordie at the back?

104 Go to comments
G
GodOfFriedChicken 1 hour ago
The constant in the All Blacks’ struggles is not the coaches

Looking back at it, it was the second test and what I was referring to was the Kyle Sinckler jump into Charlie Faumuina that gave them the game winning penalty. As Read said, by that logic, players should just jump into every pass to bait the penalty.

That team still dominated its opposition in that span. As I said in another comment here, they made a tactical gamble in that semi and choked.



...

104 Go to comments
E
Easy_Duzz-it 1 hour ago
The constant in the All Blacks’ struggles is not the coaches

Both player selection and style of play … we've gone backwards . Razor was just keeping us a float .

We are lucky to be 2nd in the world



...

104 Go to comments
c
cw 1 hour ago
The constant in the All Blacks’ struggles is not the coaches

Agree with the head drop point. A just to clarify, the stats show a steady improvement against tier 1 (other top 5 teams) teams over the last 5 years:

2021 25%



...

104 Go to comments
J
JW 1 hour ago
The constant in the All Blacks’ struggles is not the coaches



while the remainder of the spots are selected on form.

Not even. Leicester was straight in on his contract alone, and he’d only be mid tier, perhaps in the top 20 contracts.



...

104 Go to comments
c
cw 1 hour ago
The constant in the All Blacks’ struggles is not the coaches

Hey PMcD we normally agree - and you have identified the flaws but just for a small bit of balance the ABs this year beat France B x 3 (but with a pack that bore little or no ressemblance to the first choice pack at the end of 2024 - 5 members out with injury from memory for the first test and a completely differently configured pack in the third test) Argentina, South Africa, Australia (x 2), Ireland and Scotland. They did this with some the most potent set piece striking of all the teams - the way they opened up opposition in their 22 was quite remarkable. Did they overdo this - definitely - but they were not irredeemable especially if they sorted the third quarter malaise. Part of that has to be owned by the players.

104 Go to comments
J
JW 2 hours ago
The constant in the All Blacks’ struggles is not the coaches

The NH leagues have just done a better job at understanding whats happening I think. There isn’t a whole lot that needs to go into an AB attack though, if theyre allowed to just let loose they can click. Then the cat and mouse can begin again.

PB is trying to call out the players, thinking Razor was on the right track. Your post was agreeing with him. Maybe you mean to reply to GodChicken?



...

104 Go to comments
c
cw 2 hours ago
The constant in the All Blacks’ struggles is not the coaches

Yeah the under 20s have not looked great for a while, though they made the final last year (or was that a different youth team?). But I wonder whether that reflects priorities in NZ rugby rather than a generational decline. Some of our best players are the younger guys.

104 Go to comments
J
JW 2 hours ago
The constant in the All Blacks’ struggles is not the coaches

I think that was the second test. What you are referring to was that Romain we have an deal, international grab at the ball while offside reverse call. He absolutely deliberately caught the ball. Obvious by mistake, and to his credit he knew it fast enough to confuse the officials interpretation of the law. They absolutely got that wrong.

The point that you seem to be missing due to your Crusader bias is that that team struggled in new modern football with Beauden at the helm. They did not look more cohesive at all, they looked, as they did against England in 2019, absolutely bereft of idea’s against todays modern defences.



...

104 Go to comments
G
GodOfFriedChicken 2 hours ago
The constant in the All Blacks’ struggles is not the coaches

He tried to get the team winning without trying to understand what he was working with and that’s why he was rejected. Hansen got his players to win, even as I mention below, during a rebuilding period where they struggled to find replacements for gold standard players like McCaw, Kaino, Smith, Nonu and still managed to win with solid but not world breaking players like Cane (when not injured), Squire, Crotty and late career SBW.

I’ll still argue that the choke in the semifinal vs England was more due to a tactical miscalculation where they tried to go tall in the lineout with Scooter at 6, expecting to play more set pieces, while England went with 2 opensides and had a lot more speed to the breakdown, keeping possession away and leading to the team choking it away for the second half. Was the team as strong as 2015? Definitely not. But I disagree with that loss being evidence of Hansen losing his players. He gambled and not all gambles work out - it’s not like the players gave up because they didn’t like the game plan.



...

104 Go to comments
J
JC 3 hours ago
'Ireland are consumed by chaos, but Andy Farrell's choice of 10 is becoming clear'

100% Eric. Not a shred of, honestly, decency or integrity. Lies and constantly avoiding answering the actual questions. Just deflection and being morally outraged. However, the softest bunch of trolls you’ll likely encounter on a forum, It’s like winding up an angry thin skinned jack russell….

22 Go to comments
J
JW 3 hours ago
The constant in the All Blacks’ struggles is not the coaches

And the halves, the back three. He changed philosophy of his f/r.

Whitelock, Retallick, and Scooter, as lock, and Smith at halfback were the only well oiled parts of that team.



...

104 Go to comments
J
JW 3 hours ago
The constant in the All Blacks’ struggles is not the coaches

The topic is the ‘quality’ of the players. Nothing to do with whether they ‘led’ or not.

The point is that Razor was trying to get this team winning, and well, I suppose you can construe that the players didn’t like that, now that Razor has been rejected (by whowever, who is not the point of this article) it undeniably rests on the players.



...

104 Go to comments
J
JC 3 hours ago
The Springboks' biggest critic might be right on this one

It’s as simple as this the top European clubs don’t want the marquee or regular bok internationals because they’re basically not getting their money’s worth and getting fleeced. They’ve learned their lessons at a cost. You just have to look at the amount of top SA internationals playing in France, England and Ireland. Gone are the days of Matfield, botha, Kolbe etc….smashing it up for Toulon, Toulouse etc….Bar Synman at Leinster and Thomas du toit at bath there isn’t any more. Klyen and Dweba are on the fringes. You have alot of good pro’s or possible unfounded rough diamonds these are better value. France was always the go too for the money but the kolisi debacle has definitely made owners and investors cuter and wiser. You can understand from a SA point of view not wanting top internationals getting flogged in the top 14 and i’m sure that’s why management have been steering the players towards a sabbatical in Japan playing tag rugby. In fairness it’ll prolong their careers and the Japanese clubs will get money through these players on sponsorship deals, selling products and endorsements. However from a sporting perspective on the pitch they’re getting very little out of alot of them. It seems at the moment this is the best for both sides as the SA international team are flourishing, keeping players fresh and the focus away from club rugby.. While the European teams know where they stand and can invest their money more wisely on commited, consistent and reliable players.

49 Go to comments
c
cw 3 hours ago
The constant in the All Blacks’ struggles is not the coaches

Agree PMcD. Its about balance across the whole team. We have some of the tallest props / lifters in world rugby (Williams 195, Tosi 196, Lomax 193, de Groot 190). This I think offsets the lack of height for most oppositon. Note also that Englands main crop of loosies are not much taller if at all than these three Curry 185, Pollock 188, Underhill 186, Earl 183 vs Savea 188, Sititi 187, Lakai 186. And like you this combination should have started in London because of England’s newfound intensity. But the ABs must look to match up more closely when playing the Boks and France. This is where your 6-2 is critical. I don’t think Jacobson is the answer - he is too small at 192cm/ 108 kgs to make the necessary power impact. We need more mass - this is where Parker (197cm / 117kgs), Papali’i (193cm/113kgs) and Vaa’i (198 cm / 118 kgs) et al come in. They key is then how you configure the combinations etc.

104 Go to comments
J
JW 3 hours ago
Scott Robertson's biggest mistake as All Blacks coach

As an All Black supporter, I can understand that.

118 Go to comments
J
JC 4 hours ago
The Springboks' biggest critic might be right on this one

Unhinged, thin skinned and paranoid. Great to see the stereotype is still strong and true!

49 Go to comments
J
JW 4 hours ago
The coaching conundrum part three: Time is running out for Australia and New Zealand

One of many ways to skin a cat.

579 Go to comments
c
cw 4 hours ago
The constant in the All Blacks’ struggles is not the coaches

All of that makes sense JK. But if a player is consistently underperforming they need to be managed out of the starting 23. Wellington was a shocking performance by the senior cohort. They disappeared. England was not so bad, but the same lack of onfield leadership was evident (though in fairness losing players likeTaylor, BB and Roigard in the span of minutes would have affected most teams.) A coach must be able replace / stand down players who repeatedly underperform or are a negative influence whatever their contract terms. Rassie dumping Pollard, de Allande, Kriel, Eben, Le Roux et al for the Wellington test is testament to that. And it seems to me Robertson did not wield the axe enough. Joseph has had his own problems with man management but that experience has him ideally placed to apply the surgical knife as needed.

104 Go to comments
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