Easterby hits back at France's conduct in the wake of Dupont injury

Just to point out how The Citings Commission and world rugbymust view Galthie:

1: The recent cases of Ntamack and Ringrose coincidently involved the same Welsh player and doctor, Ben Thomas and – Dr Geoff Davies, Wales, Team Doctor.

Davies assessment:

Ntamack:

"I attended to our player, red 10, who appeared to be in distress having taken a heavy blow to his nose following a challenge from an opponent. He was bleeding from both nostrils and clinically this was consistent with a nasal fracture. He was clearly in significant pain but he had no concussion symptoms or signs. I arrested the bleeding using nasal tampons into each nostril and ultimately he returned to play. Post-match assessment in the changing rooms revealed his nose to be deviated to the right consistent with a nasal fracture.”

Ringrose:

“Myself and Welsh Physio, Prav Mathema, attended to Red 12 (Ben Thomas) on the field of play during the Wales V Ireland game on Saturday 22nd February. This was following a collision with Ireland no. 13. There was no clinical evidence of significant injury. In particular there was no evidence of cervical or facial injury and no evidence of concussion. We were happy for him to return to play.”

Ntamack quotes:

“The Player stressed that he would never wish to hurt an opponent and he deeply regrets that the incident caused injury to Wales #10’s nose.”

Now look at the mandatory explanation for entry level for Ringrose: contact with head but no injury therefore mid-range applies:

Ringrose: “Given the direct contact with W12’s head, the mandatory minimum mid-range entry point applies. In light of the lack of any injury or other aggravating feature, a top end entry point was not appropriate.”

Ntamack should be in trouble right?

Look at the mandatory explanation for Ntamack: “ n/a “ ???????????

In the press release matrix the tickbox relating to whether the player was injured is unticked for both Ntamack and Ringrose. Even though the citing commission knew there was an injury to Thomas they chose to ignore it which allowed Ntamack mid-range ban entry.

2: The reason that club matches didn’t count for Ntamack is known by both Ntamck and Galthie. They acknowledged it at the hearing:

“It is a quirk of the Six Nations that there are two fallow weeks where players can be released back to their clubs. Establishing that a player was “expected to play” for his club in the first fallow week is very difficult in the context of red cards / citations following Six Nations match week 1 fixtures. The biggest variable – performance in match week 2 – is not yet known, and without that information France Men’s Head Coach cannot say definitively (nor is he required to say under the terms of the FFR / LNR Agreement) whether after match week 1 a player would have been designated for the first fallow week.”

The precedent for Week 1 reds are O’Mahony, Ireland (2021) club matches didnt count. The only player to have club matches count was the amazing case of Willemse, France (2024). He had a 10 match due to too bad headshots reduced to 4 and two club matches counted. Amazingly he was eligible to play last three 6N matches!!

The precedents for Ringrose are Atonio (2023), Haouas (2023) and Danty (2024) all France.

Ntamack and Galthie know exactly why club matches didn’t count for Ntamack. They also know Ntamack got away with murder with Thomas. It appears that he targetted Thomas head and broke his nose in revenge for an earlier incident. The injury alone was enough to give Ntamack a higher range ban entry. The commission ignored the Thomas injury.

This is a Trumpian attempt by Galthie to impose Trumpian alternative facts hoping that public pressure will make the lie get positive results. The commission should stand their ground.

Note if there is a safety issue around rucks they should look at it. But it becomes increasingly difficult to take ‘The boy who cried wolf’ Galthie seriously.

Honestly, Galthe’s response isn’t all that surprising when you consider just how egotistical and unapologetic modern coaches have become. Everything is now the ref’s fault, except when you win, and even then sometimes it still is. Rassie, Robertson, Galthe, Borthwick, Farell etc all moaning and whinging every match. Time for them to grow up and start acting like adults.

Well it certainly makes for better viewing from here on in. There’s plenty of animosity to share around which was previously reserved solely for England. Ireland need a massive rebuild and I feel it’s too late for the 2027 WC.

Beirne flew into that ruck at speed, with upper body below waist and no arms outstretched to clear an opponent out. Ireland do this consistently when desperately defending near their own line and always get away with it. Beirne’s actions were reckless and dangerous because he was out of control. I accept he did not mean to injure Dupont but his actions were likely to cause significant trauma to whoever he hit as he was always going off his feet.

Easterby is under pressure for the first time and has clearly shown that with the Ringrose ‘ban’ and with this clear citing act, he is not up to head coach standard.

Ireland somehow manipulate the citing process to suit their needs, not only internationally but in the URC and Europe.

World Rugby are their usual disappointing selves but not stepping in on both incidents and dealing with them correctly. Discipline is a farce in rugby and the leniency shown to players is unacceptable.

Great distraction for Easterby to focus on instead of how much he screwed up the Grand Slam campaign.

Imagine if he knew how to coach and select a squad. Alas, never to be. Hopefully he'll depart for Cardiff sooner than later

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Some French fans showed their mettle when threatening officials after the world cup exit. Its not just French, Kiwis threatened Barnes and family after Foster lambasted officials following the RWC final. South Africa have form too. Galthie knows exactly what he was doing. Once the Citing commissioners dismissed him, the honorable thing to do was a public apology to the players he accused. No chance. He had been winding French fans up with his utterly disingenuous attack on the sanctions system re Ringrose and Ntamack.

The online rugby world is a cesspit of ‘supporters’ who use rugby as an extension of their personal ego, and are more or less therefore nut cases. People’s lives have been threatened on this platform for example. It won’t be long til you see a whacko attack a player or referee on a street in real life.

Easterby is 100% right in calling out the shenanigans from this French mini Trump.