'Average game': What went wrong with Antoine Dupont against England

France’s superstar Antoine Dupont had an uncharacteristic game at Twickenham against England as France came crashing back to Earth with a 26-25 loss.

After stunning the rugby world with his return to the Six Nations with three try assists against Wales, Dupont was largely kept in check by the English defence.

Worse, the game’s biggest star had some key miscues, dropping a catchable pass on route to the try line which would have given France the opening score.

As handling errors plagued France across the night, Dupont’s magic was bottled up.

“When you see Dupont have such a kind of average game, it has an impact, he contributed to a couple of those mistakes,” ex-Ireland wing Trimble said on Virgin Media Sport.

Player Turnovers Lost

1

Marcus Smith

3

2

Thomas Ramos

3

3

Ollie Sleightholme

2

Former Ireland fullback Rob Kearney believed that Dupont’s form rubs off on France as such an iconic figure in the team.

“That has a fact too, because when Antoine Dupont is making mistakes, the whole team are going, ‘oh’, yeah, he’s there talisman if he is making mistakes, there must be something wrong with us,” Kearney said.

The star scrumhalf was even moved to flyhalf late in the game to accomodate reserve No.10 Nolann Le Garrec which Kearney described as “strange”.

“Particularly the way the French play rugby, their number 10 is their number nine,” Kearney said.

“And so a bit of a strange call. But then Nolann Le Garrec is a class act of a player too, so they probably wanted to get him in the field and try and see if he could create a little bit of magic.”

Australian TV pundit Matt Williams was complimentary of the way England went about shutting down the threat of Dupont.

The ex-coach saw England execute their strategy well all night to harass France’s No.9.

“I also thought, really credit the English defence. The first two or three defenders on either side of the ruck were just coming straight forward to deny Dupont time and space,” Williams said.

“You could see him a little bit rushed tonight. And then they were coming out on the first forward ball carrier as well.

“So I thought the defensive strategy did limit Dupont, which the English deserve credit for.”

Trimble reiterated that the performance was stunning from France, but for all the wrong reasons.

“We can’t believe, can’t understand, quite what went wrong. It was just so unlike France, to see them do that, they definitely won’t do that two weeks in a row,” Trimble said.

“They probably used all of their errors for 12 months of rugby, and we’re [Ireland] going to pay the price in Dublin in two weeks. That’s why Sean Edwards had a laugh. He knows what’s going on.”