FRANCE CAPTAIN ANTOINE Dupont says that Ireland are the favourites for the Six Nations title as he and his team-mates get set to welcome Andy Farrell’s men to Paris next weekend.
Ireland opened their campaign with a 29-7 bonus-point win at home against Wales yesterday before the French got up and running with a 37-10 bonus-point victory of their own versus Italy in Paris today, leaving them at the top of the table after Round 1.
Les Bleus had been dubbed as the pre-Six Nations favourites in many quarters, but Dupont has suggested that Ireland should be seen as the front-runners.
The World Rugby player of the year is hoping that his team can improve during their six-day turnaround before the visit of Farrell’s side.
“The supporters will have seen that we made a lot of errors this evening and a lot of poor decisions in difficult conditions,” said Dupont.
“At least we can be satisfied with the result. It is always tough playing Italy at home. We know they always come here full of energy and the conditions were not good either. We were imprecise in all parts of the pitch, we gave them things, penalties, forward passes.
“We have to correct those and be more serious and rigorous. The chances will then follow. We know Ireland are a good team, surely the favourites for the championship. They showed how good they are yesterday, we know what awaits us.”
France wing Gabin Villière scored a hat-trick in today’s win over the Italians and there were several glimpses of their lethal attacking qualities even in the wet and windy weather at Stade de France.
He took some pride in the French performance as they now look towards Ireland’s visit.
“You have to be at your best on the first day, and there you go we were, it gives me great pleasure, especially in front of this crowd,” said Villière.
“This endorses two weeks of hard work and the score reflects that, the bonus point in the bag.
“It is very positive for what is to follow and, of course, we will work on the little niggles in the game because we know there is a huge match awaiting us against Ireland
“With the wind and the rain, Italy put us under a lot of pressure with their kicking, and a turnover in our 22 cost us a try, but we rectified that, we kept cool heads and we all stepped up together.”
- This article was updated at 10.53am on 7 February to correct ‘Les Blues’ to ‘Les Bleus’ in the third paragraph.
If Dupont is lucky, he might get Gibson Park’s jersey after the game next week
@#JUSTICE4NOEL: Gibson Park would want to up his own game after yesterday that amount of mistakes would be suicidal against the French
@Michael McGrath: Ahhh he made a few but not a whole pile now. Greasy ball and just a 10 minute blip before half time. Dupont wasn’t exactly great today either, again probably the weather playing its part. It happens.
@Michael McGrath: One or two passes went astray. He was excellent other than that I thought and is a huge reason why Ireland are able to sustain momentum while attacking. You really come to appreciate JGP’s speed at the ruck when you watch Ben Youngs. The difference between the two yesterday was night and day.
@Michael McGrath: yeah he was shaky & not up to his recent high standards. Noticeable drop off in game management when Carbery came on. Still question him picked over Carty, but I ain’t the coach.
Is it just me or does anyone else think the tap & go 5 metres out is a crazy option? The entire opposition 15 line up in defence for it, whereas if its a scrum, that’s 8 players taken out of defence immediately, providing more space & options. I don’t think it’s a good option unless your forwards are beasts that are guaranteed to barge over with a tap & go.
@Daithí O’ Donnabhain: I think Exeter use it as a weapon and its been very effective, but I also think it can border on a flying wedge. Leinster also used it against Ulster a year or two. But I think as a weapon its outdated as refs lookout for and penalise flying wedges more.
@Kingshu: was definitely an effective strategy for Exeter, who get the credit for it, same as Ireland are credited for the choke tackle. Just don’t think it works at club or international level now, as well as it did for Exeter.
@Daithí O’ Donnabhain: mad to blame the drop-off on carbery. A rake of subs came on and, predictably, the game became very fragmented. Don’t know why you’ve singled out one player in all of that.
@Michael McGrath: yet his replacements poor pass inside our 22 had the knock on effect of gifting Wales 7 points. Did you see the amount of mistakes and errors Du pont made yesterday?
If you cant see how important the tempo that jgp brings to how we play then all you will see is the errors he makes while playing at such a quick pace. We can go back to the joe S slow and steady way of playing where instead playing to create we play to not make mistakes.
Let me guess michael you’d rather see a player from a different province.
@Daithí O’ Donnabhain: unless the plan is to keep them moving and the ball in play and not allow the 2 or 3 minutes break the scrum gives to reset their defence. We have a dominant scrum i’d go with the scrum but i can see the reason behind the tap and go.
@B Collins: it had a lot to do with him sitting deeper than sexton and he didnt really take the game on. Sexton was bossing the game right on the line.
Saying that the first penalty we gave away in the game came on the 53rd minute. The 2 subs were called out by the ref as the ones who gave away the penalty. So the subs as you said also had that effect.
@Michael McGrath: will ve lucky to be selected, a oretty poor performance
sigh…what’s the french for ‘yerra’?
@Paddy Kennedy: was just about to say something similar, Kerry would have nothing on this fella!
@Paddy Kennedy: What’s the French for an Beal bocht?
@Andrew Taz Donohoe: i dont mind cooling the hype but this outright guff is getting annoying. same from eddie jones with his ‘scotland are raging favourites’ stuff. its just gaslighting – saying something objectively untrue as if it’s a fact.
maybe we shouldnt be surprised with dupont after he claimed he needed a HIA for a cruciate ligament injury (thus allowing a sub to come on for him) during the 2018 game against ireland…
@Paddy Kennedy: is that the HIA incident that was investigated with the conclusion that there was no connection with the French team and that the call was made by the match day doctor, supported by the video doctor, and was based on the match officials’ earlier indication that an HIA was required?
@ForrestG45: im talking about the game where both dupont and jallibert faked hias so that france could bring on subs. it was exactly the same as bloodgate…faking a category of injury that allows for re-substitution. the only difference (apart from the farcical joke-shop nature of bloodgate) was that jalibert and dupont were actually injured. perhaps french ppl are wired differently and the version of the song there is the knee bone’s connected to the brain bone…
@Paddy Kennedy: saying something objectively untrue as if it is a fact…
You’ll never underdog the Irish, Antoine
Passing the pressure bigtime. Own it!
France are still favorite with the bookies.