Category: France Rugby

• France yet to put timeline on possible World Cup return
• Baptiste Couilloud and Maxime Lucu in line to step in

The France captain, Antoine Dupont, has undergone surgery on a facial injury and will return to their Rugby World Cup squad to recover, the French federation (FFR) said on Saturday, though it gave no timeline for when the scrum-half might return to the field.

The 26-year-old sustained the injury in Thursday’s 96-0 record win against Namibia in a head-to-head clash with opposing captain, Johan Deysel, whose initial yellow card was upgraded to a red.

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• Scrum-half remains in camp while specialist opinion sought
• Dupont injured in head-to-head clash during win over Namibia

France captain Antoine Dupont suffered a facial fracture during the hosts’ record 96-0 victory over Namibia at the Rugby World Cup, the French Rugby Federation said on Friday in a devastating setback for the hosts.

“Antoine Dupont has suffered a maxillo-zygomatic fracture. A specialist surgical opinion has been requested to determine the exact length of the player’s unavailability. Antoine Dupont remains with the France squad,” the FFR said in a statement.

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• France 96-0 Namibia
• Dupont in hospital with suspected fractured cheekbone

A rampant France demolished Namibia 96-0 in Marseille, with Damian Penaud plundering a hat-trick of tries as the hosts achieved a record score to maintain their perfect start to the World Cup. However, the victors saw Antoine Dupont go off with a potential serious facial injury.

Reports in France suggest Dupont had suffered a fractured cheekbone, which could put his participation in the rest of the tournament in doubt.

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The hosts were utterly dominant from start to finish against the Namibians

2 mins: Namibia have a lineout but a bit of a hash of it and France ensure the danger ends. Some good intent from the Namibians in the early stages. They have had most of the ball.

Here we go!

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France secured an unconvincing win over Uruguay in a game they were expected to dominate

It good to see France take their matches around the country to really make it a national event. All too often the hosts play their games in the capital and avoid anywhere else.

“I’m imagining it’s the Parisian rooftop malarkey?” You imagine correctly, John Potter. “Half expecting Dick van Dyke to show up at any moment with the Chimney sweep ensemble. Very strange indeed. Enjoy the game!”

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• France 27-12 Uruguay
• Hosts miss out on bonus points after hard-fought first half

We are privileged to be watching probably the finest France team of the century, but the rest of the world was given some assurance that the old kinks in their psyche, which we thought they had ironed out, might still be niggling away beneath the lacquer. This was supposed to be a procession. It was not.

No one gave Uruguay a chance. The bookies reckoned they were something like 200-1 to win. Well, the score after 53 minutes read 13-12 to the hosts – and they were lucky to be ahead at all. The South Americans tore into their hosts and in many respects outplayed them, scoring two tries worthy of the most accomplished sides. It was not until the final 10 minutes that France were able to secure the win with any kind of confidence. This blip in the carnival will quickly be forgotten when France qualify for the quarters, but let the record state they failed here even to register a bonus point.

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Les Bleus serenaded off pitch by 80,000 fans after frenetic victory over All Blacks caps exuberant celebration of sport’s 200th anniversary

Allez les Bleus. On a night where the Stade de France resembled a sweaty mess of nerves and high emotion, France got the Rugby World Cup off to a thumping start with a 27-13 victory over New Zealand.

It was the first time the All Blacks, three-time winners of the tournament, had ever lost a pool match. No wonder France were serenaded off the pitch by nearly 80,000 fans, with a rousing rendition of La Marseillaise.

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Thomas Ramos’s kicking and tries by Damian Penaud and Melvyn Jaminet helped France inflict New Zealand’s first ever pool loss

The 2007 Rugby World Cup winner Bryan Habana, pitchside with Jill Douglas and Sean Fitzpatrick on ITV, describes the sense of anticipation in France as “absolutely tangible”.

“This feels special,” chips in Fitzy.

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Tournament has all the ingredients to justify hype with the potential for a European winner and the likelihood of upsets

Think of French rugby and what springs instantly to mind? With apologies to Antoine Dupont and friends, it is still the epic pre-match lunch some of us chanced upon in Bordeaux a couple of decades ago. The pièce de résistance was the arrival of 80 huge platters of oysters, carried triumphantly in to a jazz band serenade as hundreds of guests stood and whirled their napkins aloft. When the mood takes them, the French “do” rugby like nowhere else on earth.

And, mon Dieu, are they up for it. If anyone was to dream up an event that, anticipation-wise, ticked every conceivable box it would unquestionably be this year’s men’s Rugby World Cup. The host nation was keen enough in 2007, when they last staged the global extravaganza, but this time even Paris’s grandest buildings already have Dupont’s image draped across them. Gallic excitement levels are off the scale from Toulon to Le Touquet.

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