TADHG BEIRNE SAYS he attempted to reach out to Antoine Dupont after the French scrum-half suffered a season-ending ACL injury following a ruck clear-out by Beirne and teammate Andrew Porter during Ireland’s defeat to France in the Six Nations.

France were incensed by the incident, with head coach Fabien Galthié publicly reporting Ireland second row Beirne and loosehead Porter to the citing commissioner.

However, the commissioner later agreed with the match officials’ assessment that neither Beirne nor Porter had committed foul play in their efforts to remove Dupont from the ruck.

And speaking publicly about the incident for the first time in the lead-up to Munster’s Champions Cup last-16 tie away to La Rochelle this Saturday, Beirne said that the “backlash” experienced by him, Porter, and their respective families had been punishment enough for what was ultimately deemed a ‘rugby incident’.

Beirne added that he was sorry that Dupont had suffered the injury but that it had never been his intention to “injure the best player in the world.”

Antoine Dupont suffered a season-ending injury against Ireland during the Six Nations. Ben Brady / INPHO Ben Brady / INPHO / INPHO

“Yeah, look, I reached out to him,” Beirne said. “I messaged him on Instagram. I tried looking for him after the game as well but I couldn’t get to him; he’s obviously with medical teams and that.

“Y’know, he has a million followers or something on Instagram, I’m pretty sure he’s not going to see a message from me, but look, it’s all I could do at the time. I sent my regards through Grégory Aldritt as well.

It’s an incident, obviously, where you can slow it down and it can look bad, but it’s an incident that wasn’t intentional. Like, I never intended to injure him. The last thing I want to do is injure the best player in the world.

“You don’t go out there to hurt anyone but it was just unfortunate the way it happened,” Beirne added. “And I’m sorry for the fact that it happened to him. You don’t like see it happen to any player.

But the backlash myself and Porter and our families got afterward was probably enough punishment for us on its own, to be honest with you.

Beirne’s international teammate Porter is among the several Irish players who have experienced victory over La Rochelle in the last two seasons for their province, with two of Leinster’s victories — including their most recent, during this season’s Champions Cup pool stage — being achieved at the Stade Marcel-Deflandre.

Beirne said that a few Leinster players had mentioned to their Munster counterparts “a few things to be aware of” ahead of Saturday’s knockout meeting with Ronan O’Gara’s side in France’s southwest. However, the Munster captain laughed and politely declined when invited to expand upon the advice he had received.

But Beirne, at least in so far as he’s inclined to be publicly, was bullish about Munster’s chances against the two-time European champions, with Munster the form side heading into Saturday’s encounter simply by dint of having won a game recently.

Where the southern province held out for an impressive 14-man victory over Connacht at MacHale Park on Saturday, O’Gara’s ‘Rochelais’ haven’t won a game since their January defeat to Leinster, losing seven and drawing one of their last eight.

And while Beirne expects La Rochelle to be able to switch gears for a do-or-die European affair against their head coach’s native province, he believes Munster can extend their European season if they play to their own capacity this Saturday evening.

Captain Tadhg Beirne following Munster's victory over Connacht. James Crombie / INPHO James Crombie / INPHO / INPHO

“It’s not going to define our season, like,” Beirne said. “We still have the league. But how sweet would it be to be staying in this competition for as long as we can, and try to get to a final to give a chance for some silverware? That’s that’s our mentality, anyway.

“We’re probably the underdogs going into this away from home, but we’ll certainly give it a good crack and we’re very excited.

Behind closed doors, we know we have a good chance of doing it if we put in a complete performance, and that’s the target.

“There’s no point in being in it if you’re just gonna bend over and give up, y’know?” Beirne added. “So, for me, it’s about believing in what we can do when we’re at our best.

“They (La Rochelle) are going through a rough patch — like they’ve lost a few league games — but this is a different competition, so it gives them probably a new opportunity just to go out there and give it a proper crack. And when you go from one competition to the next, it can give you a little bit of a new lease of life as well, so I’d certainly be expecting that from them.”

When asked what areas of Munster’s game have to be especially pristine against O’Gara’s side, who are currently six-point favourites for this weekend’s last-16 encounter, Beirne replied: “The obvious one that everyone’s looking at is the power game, isn’t it?”

“They have some unbelievably big and skillful forwards with unbelievable offloading skills”, Beirne added, “so I can imagine it’s a big area they’re going to target: trying to beat us up up front.

“So, I think our defence is going to be the biggest part of of Saturday, y’know? If we get our defence right and if we can shut them down and not give them easy yards, I think we’ll give ourselves a bit of a chance.”