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Antoine Dupont's 'clear and obvious' take on missed calls in France's quarter-final loss
By PA
France captain Antoine Dupont has questioned the standard of refereeing after France crashed out of their home World Cup with a heartbreaking single-point defeat to reigning champions South Africa in Paris.
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The Springboks edged an epic contest at Stade de France 29-28 to set up a semi-final showdown with England.
Les Bleus captain Dupont suffered major disappointment on his highly-publicised return from a fractured cheekbone and felt substandard officiating was partly to blame.
Asked about the performance of New Zealand referee Ben O’Keefe, the scrum-half replied: “Well, what did you think from the outside?
“It’s hard to talk about things because there is a lot of disappointment, a lot of frustration. We want to see the images again – which will give us even more disappointment and even more frustration – but I think some clear and obvious things weren’t whistled.
“I don’t want to be a bad loser and moan about the refereeing but I’m not sure the level of refereeing was up the level of the game today.
“I don’t know if the match was lost at that point, but at crucial moments, we could have had a penalty. When you’ve gone forward 60 metres and you’re slowed down in the rucks, it’s pretty easy to whistle.
“That doesn’t take anything away from the South Africans’ great game, who got on top of us at the breakdown. They played a great game.”
A disconsolate Dupont was pictured with his hands on his head at full-time and was later in tears as he was embraced by his parents.
The 26-year-old was back in action just 24 days since sustaining the serious facial injury which threatened to prematurely end his tournament, donning a scrum-cap for added protection.
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France flew out of the blocks and led 22-19 at the end of one of the most exhilarating opening 40 minutes in World Cup history in which the two teams shared six tries.
Eben Etzebeth returned from the sin-bin to help South Africa over the line with the only touchdown of a tighter second period, while Les Bleus were left to rue one of Thomas Ramos’ three conversion attempts being charged down by Cheslin Kolbe.
France head coach Fabien Galthie revealed prop Uini Atonio and lock Romain Taofifenua, the two oldest members of his squad, will retire and confirmed he intends to remain in his role.
French President Emmanuel Macron provided solace to his country’s players in the dressing room after the match.
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“For four years we wrote a beautiful page of French history that the players can be proud of,” said Galthie.
“We can also be sad tonight because of the result.
“No regrets. You’re allowed to lose like we did today. We did everything to optimise our potential.”
Asked if there was a chance he may step down, the 54-year-old replied: “Well, no, I’ve got a contract to June 2028.”
What are the stages of grief?
denial.
anger.
bargaining. ———> France is here
depression.
acceptance.
Well I do think that France can feel aggrieved that in “earning” the penalty which lead to the winning kick for his side Kwagga Smith actually broke the rules by placing his hand on the ground before challenging the ball. So rather than gaining a makeable kick they lose 3 and lose by 1. What I don’t understand is if the TMO can intervene to note a knock on leading to a try why they can’t advise that a call that’s not open for interpretation, like at a scrum, should actually go the other way.
OKAY we all know humans have a tendency to be infallible.
I was reading an article where O’Keefe had been criticised for three blunders.
The journalist had played the situations in slow motion, then consulted the rule book. O'Keefe calls were correct in all three situations.
Some of us should study the rule book methinks……..
Nickers, what I said was he batted the ball DEAD, not over the sideline in goal. Either way it’s a penalty kick to France on the 5m line. Quite clear in the Laws of the game.
Curious use of the HIA protocols by the Boks. Almost as if their rolling door replacements in the second half were planned. Surely the Boks wouldn’t stoop to that?
I only refereed for two seasons before starting to coach. As a referee I was quite unique as I never missed a thing or made a bad decision. I was much the same as a player and cannot understand to this day why I was never selected for England.
Todays players are very good and so is the standard of refereeing but both make mistakes. It alway was and always will be but in my day there was no I in team and nobody blamed referees because they’d lost.
One point, just one point, is all it takes to cripple a nation…
It must be safe to assume that all the hysterical vitriol directed towards SA as a team and as a nation - in the comments below - is by either French, Irish or English nationals?
The nature of Rugby is that in every match there are loads of wrong or missed decisions against a certain team but also against their opponents as well, which makes it look as if your team was cheated if you are only focusing on the decisions that were against you.
There were several wrong calls that went against SA at crucial moments as well. That doesn’t mean Ben O’Keefe was particularly bad either, as this happens almost every game, regardless of who the ref is. Usually what fluctuates is not the referee, but how one-eyed the fans or players are in a given moment. Hence the number of complaints about the ref after crucial matches.
Furthermore, if the game happens to be a 1 pointer like this one, it is all the more tempting to think “if that decision was different we would have won”, but SA can also point to wrong decisions without which their winning margin would have been significantly wider.
Saffa here. I genuinely feel terrible for both Ireland and France who both have outstanding players and teams. Both deserved at minimum a semifinal. There were a couple of decisions that went our way, but I thought O’Keefe did a great job of not disrupting the game too much. Balancing allowing a free flowing game with penalizing clear infractions is a tough job. I feel the refs could blow the whistle every 20 secs if they wanted. On another day the result would have gone to France.