LONG READ How Dupont-less France tossed a grenade into Ireland's Grand Slam celebrations

Before the match, Dublin was primed for celebration. Ireland had won their first three Six Nations games, and beaten their main rivals France by a combined total of 70 points to 36, home and away, over the previous two seasons. The international retirements of Conor Murray, Cian Healy and Peter O’Mahony would only add more flavour to the Grand Slam craic. Captain Caelan Doris had a broad grin on his face just before kick-off. Irish eyes were smiling, pints of the black stuff were already lined up in the bars of the capital and the three-peat was a fait accompli. What could possibly go wrong?

In the event, the celebration did go off the rails quite dramatically, and Ireland could not even reach for the comfort blanket of a super-normal performance from ‘the best player in the world’ Antoine Dupont by way of compensation. Dupont left the field with a serious knee injury in only the 28^th minute and Les Bleus were galvanised by the arrival of his replacement, and the solitary back on France’s 7-1 bench, Bordeaux-Begles’ own petit general Maxime Lucu.

France head coach Fabien Galthié was ‘filthy’ about the cleanout which caused Dupont’s departure afterwards.

Clear targetting of the standing leg of Dupont pic.twitter.com/VE3HMJ9saf

— SmallClone (@Smallclone_) March 8, 2025

Commenting on France 2 TV he said: “There is a suspicion of a quite serious knee injury to Antoine. He is suffering – let’s say it how it is.

“I don’t want to go into details, mainly due to medical confidentiality. We have cited two players – Tadhg Beirne and Andrew Porter – in our post-match report.

“In 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.

“We have also highlighted [Ireland wing Calvin] Nash to the citing commissioner for Pierre-Louis Barassi, who did not respond well to the HIA protocol.”

The citing commissioner chose to take no further action against Beirne or Porter for their part in Dupont’s injury

If Dupont had been withdrawn before the game ever started, it would have been the very best of outcomes from an Ireland point of view. Happening in-game and overlaid with a sense of grievance, it turned into the very worst. Les Bleus with an emotional axe to grind are dangerous beasts indeed, and as their number eight Gregory Alldritt observed, “it added fire to our bellies for the second half.”

Ireland v France has become the blue riband contest of the Six Nations because of high-quality level of performance, and the ‘boxer-versus-puncher’ nature of the rivalry. It is Joe Frazier against Muhammad Ali with an oval ball. Ireland like to lead off with their high-possession, quick recycling game built from lineout, France enjoy counter-punching off turnover, most especially off kick return.

Both sides followed the model faithfully, with Ireland running back the opening kick-off and controlling 85% of the ball for the opening 10 minutes, and France claiming a beach-head in the game on the back of quickfire changes of possession. Even by full time, Ireland had forced France to make 87 more tackles and built 54 more rucks than their opponents.

The game revealed the underlying conundrum for the men in green: over the past nine matches against rivals from either the Six Nations or the Rugby Championship they have only managed 24 tries at an average of 2.67 tries per game. The deterioration may be occurring by minutes rather than hours or days, but it represents a steady decline in scoring power nonetheless.

Les Bleus have scored twice as many tries as Ireland in the current tournament, and nine of those have come from turnover situations – more than all the other five nations put together. A table of the comparative outcomes from kick and turnover returns makes for particularly brutal reading.

One of the biggest issues for Simon Easterby’s men, especially in the unfortunate absence of James Lowe [injured in the warm-up] from their backfield, was an innate lack of threat from kick returns. It meant France could kick long with impunity, and Lucu is probably the best long kicker from nine in the entire Top 14, Dupont and all. Ireland began by committing two turnovers from kick return in the first 15 minutes.

In both instances, Ireland can cross halfway in comfort and there are 20 or 30 metres of space in which to work, but a clear sense of purpose is conspicuously absent. Whether it stumbled into a handling error or a breakdown pilfer or delivered a negative kick back to their opponents, Ireland’s transition attack was toothless.

Where the hosts were half dead, France came alive and the fireworks began from transition.

The domino effect in the first clip is felt through an obstruction by Joe McCarthy on Thomas Ramos which resulted in a yellow card for the big Leinsterman. That in turn depleted the Irish defensive lineout on the following [try-scoring] play. In both examples, the French return threat upgrades from ‘menacing’ to ‘lethal’ when the ball hits the far 15m zone.

France’s growing ascendancy in the second period increased in perfect step with the total number of significant turnover returns.

The Ireland kick-returner [Jamison Gibson-Park] is swallowed up by a fierce French counter-ruck on the right, and when the two Bordeaux wings, Damian Penaud and Louis Bielle-Biarrey connect out in the opposite 15m zone it is effectively game over.

The ultimate statement in the argument between possession and turnover attack may have been broadcast in the 74^th minute.

But the real difference in conviction was announced far, far earlier.

Ramos catches an Irish kick and offloads off the ground deep within his own 22, then Bielle-Biarrey cross-kicks backwards to the other side of the field to link with his club-mate Penaud behind his own goalline. That is real belief in your game-plan, crystal clear and untroubled by risk.

Irish legend Brian O’Driscoll’s comments on ITV hinted at advances in the French game, and decline in Ireland’s.

“We were questioning before the game the risk-reward nature [of France’s 7-1 bench split],” he said. “But my goodness, it worked so well in that second half. Just as Ireland started to tire, bring on those fresh legs.

Ireland just couldn’t deal, there was an onslaught. The way they changed the point of contact the whole time, kept the ball alive, won the collision zone. Ireland were chasing shadows.

“You could have understood thinking, when Ireland did score early in that second-half, ‘Oh, the momentum’s swung now.‘ But [France’s] ability to bounce back immediately, score within a couple of seconds, the momentum was completely taken away from Ireland. It was all in France’s favour.

“There have always been question-marks about France when they travel, [but] that was [France] putting Ireland to the sword. You think about the result in Twickenham a few years ago, the way they played over there… Ireland were lucky to only lose by 15 points today, that’s how big a differential there was between these sides.”

In truth, the nuts and bolts of Irish attack, and their ability to score from a wide range of scenarios, has shrunk ever since Jacques Nienaber took over the reins at Leinster. The World Cup-winning coach has brought new aggression on defence and at the breakdown, but it has diluted Ireland’s point of difference at national level. Now Easterby’s men are stuck uncomfortably between two stools: they don’t blitz like Nienaber on D and they no longer attack like Stuart Lancaster with ball in hand.

The championship now rests between France and England in the final round of matches. It could go all the way down to the wire. Cardiff has not been a happy hunting ground for England sides seeking a Six Nations title, but by 7 pm on Saturday evening we will know if they have secured the bonus-point win they need to pip France at the post. By 9 pm, we will know whether France have it in them to overcome a kick-and-turnover-return Scotland team which will pose the problems Ireland could not. Dimly-glimpsed though it may be, there is a chance that the guard may be a changin’ – to all white, with a splash of red.