ANDREW PORTER HAS hit back at Fabien Galthié following the France head coach’s angry reaction to Antoine Dupont sustaining an ACL injury in Ireland’s Six Nations defeat to les bleus.
Dupont suffered the season-ending injury after being caught in a clearout in the first half of France’s 42-27 win on Saturday. Ireland lock Tadhg Beirne appeared to fall on the France captain’s leg after contact from Porter, with referee Angus Gardner deeming there was no foul play.
However after the game Galthié was furious with the decision, labelling the actions of Beirne and Porter “reprehensible.” Galthié was also unhappy with Calvin Nash’s high tackle on Pierre-Louis Barassi, which saw the France centre forced off in the second half. Ireland winger Nash was yellow-carded by Gardner. The incident went to a bunker review but was not upgraded to a red card.
Galthié outlined France had referred Porter, Beirne and Nash to the citing commissioner, who subsequently dismissed all three referrals.
Yesterday, Porter was asked if he was disappointed with Galthié’s comments.
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“Not really, he can say what he wants, see how far it gets him,” Porter said.
“I wasn’t disappointed. I knew what I did, I didn’t go out to try and injure anyone. That’s not the type of player I am. If he wants to think that, that’s up to him.
Dupont was forced off during the first half. Alamy Stock Photo
Alamy Stock Photo
“I even sent Antoine a message on Instagram just to see how he was. Obviously you never want to see anyone going off the pitch like that.
“Yeah, if you have the head coach calling for your head, it’s a bit much from him now to be fair. But he’s such a pivotal player for them that they nearly just don’t want him to be touched at all.
Look, he’s entitled to his opinion but I know I haven’t done anything wrong there, so I’ll sleep well at night.”
Porter added that he received a reply from Dupont after messaging him on Instagram.
The Ireland loosehead also offered his own view on what happened.
“It was a rugby incident, like, I can barely remember exactly what it was,” he said.
“I think it was in a ruck and his leg got trapped in between a ruck when he was trying to counter it and he obviously just got trapped and went over, not wrong, but… But that’s rugby, that happens.
“I don’t think anyone was calling for Dan Leavy’s (injury), or anyone to cite when Dan Leavy did his knee a few years ago which resulted in him having to finish his career early. It happens so much in this sport, that’s the nature of it, injuries happen and that was a rugby injury, there was no malicious intent surrounding it at all. It’s obviously unfortunate and unlucky. But it’s just what happens.”
Reflecting on Saturday’s defeat, Porter rejected the suggestion Ireland didn’t have the power to deal with a French side who utilised their 7/1 bench split to devastating effect.
“A lot went well for us in the pack. I felt our scrum dealt with theirs quite well. We know how disruptive they can be as a scrummaging side, like a lot of other French packs they are big, heavy men. But we dealt with that well. We mauled well, our lineout was working well for the most part.
Porter prepares for a scrum against France. Dan Sheridan / INPHO
Dan Sheridan / INPHO / INPHO
“That’s only part of the game. Our defence at times in the first half was something we could take a lot of pride in and it was just a few momentum shifts in the second half that let them get a rumble on then. It made it really tough to come back from. As forwards, yeah, the set-piece was working well for us but around the park I think there is definitely more in us.
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“Just going through reviews and stuff, we were watching them and the main thing that came out of them was that we weren’t ourselves on the day.
“It was a few small things and that’s the thing at this level: if you’re a few percent off, teams of the calibre of France will exploit that.
“You obviously have to take your learnings from a defeat like that, but the lucky thing is it wasn’t our last game so we have something else to look forward to this week, which is a big test over in Rome (v Italy on Saturday).
“We can sit around and sulk all we want, but we have another job to do next Saturday.”
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'I didn’t go out to try injure anyone' - Porter hits back at Galthié after citing incident
ANDREW PORTER HAS hit back at Fabien Galthié following the France head coach’s angry reaction to Antoine Dupont sustaining an ACL injury in Ireland’s Six Nations defeat to les bleus.
Dupont suffered the season-ending injury after being caught in a clearout in the first half of France’s 42-27 win on Saturday. Ireland lock Tadhg Beirne appeared to fall on the France captain’s leg after contact from Porter, with referee Angus Gardner deeming there was no foul play.
However after the game Galthié was furious with the decision, labelling the actions of Beirne and Porter “reprehensible.” Galthié was also unhappy with Calvin Nash’s high tackle on Pierre-Louis Barassi, which saw the France centre forced off in the second half. Ireland winger Nash was yellow-carded by Gardner. The incident went to a bunker review but was not upgraded to a red card.
Galthié outlined France had referred Porter, Beirne and Nash to the citing commissioner, who subsequently dismissed all three referrals.
Yesterday, Porter was asked if he was disappointed with Galthié’s comments.
“Not really, he can say what he wants, see how far it gets him,” Porter said.
“I wasn’t disappointed. I knew what I did, I didn’t go out to try and injure anyone. That’s not the type of player I am. If he wants to think that, that’s up to him.
“I even sent Antoine a message on Instagram just to see how he was. Obviously you never want to see anyone going off the pitch like that.
“Yeah, if you have the head coach calling for your head, it’s a bit much from him now to be fair. But he’s such a pivotal player for them that they nearly just don’t want him to be touched at all.
Porter added that he received a reply from Dupont after messaging him on Instagram.
The Ireland loosehead also offered his own view on what happened.
“It was a rugby incident, like, I can barely remember exactly what it was,” he said.
“I think it was in a ruck and his leg got trapped in between a ruck when he was trying to counter it and he obviously just got trapped and went over, not wrong, but… But that’s rugby, that happens.
“I don’t think anyone was calling for Dan Leavy’s (injury), or anyone to cite when Dan Leavy did his knee a few years ago which resulted in him having to finish his career early. It happens so much in this sport, that’s the nature of it, injuries happen and that was a rugby injury, there was no malicious intent surrounding it at all. It’s obviously unfortunate and unlucky. But it’s just what happens.”
Reflecting on Saturday’s defeat, Porter rejected the suggestion Ireland didn’t have the power to deal with a French side who utilised their 7/1 bench split to devastating effect.
“A lot went well for us in the pack. I felt our scrum dealt with theirs quite well. We know how disruptive they can be as a scrummaging side, like a lot of other French packs they are big, heavy men. But we dealt with that well. We mauled well, our lineout was working well for the most part.
“That’s only part of the game. Our defence at times in the first half was something we could take a lot of pride in and it was just a few momentum shifts in the second half that let them get a rumble on then. It made it really tough to come back from. As forwards, yeah, the set-piece was working well for us but around the park I think there is definitely more in us.
“Just going through reviews and stuff, we were watching them and the main thing that came out of them was that we weren’t ourselves on the day.
“It was a few small things and that’s the thing at this level: if you’re a few percent off, teams of the calibre of France will exploit that.
“You obviously have to take your learnings from a defeat like that, but the lucky thing is it wasn’t our last game so we have something else to look forward to this week, which is a big test over in Rome (v Italy on Saturday).
“We can sit around and sulk all we want, but we have another job to do next Saturday.”
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