'It's the game, unfortunately,' Easterby hits back at Galthie after Dupont injury in Dublin

The France boss criticised Irish players for their role in the incident which sidelined the talismanic scrum half.

TRIP TO ITALY: Interim Head Coach Simon Easterby is preparing his side for Rome. Pic: INPHO/Ben Brady

Ireland interim boss Simon Easterby has hit back at France for creating a storm of uninformed criticism of his players following their comments about Tadhg Beirne and Andrew Porter’s part in Antoine Dupont’s serious knee injury in Dublin last Saturday.

Talismanic captain and scrum-half Dupont has been ruled out for months after rupturing cruciate ligaments after being trapped under a clearout by Beirne during the Ireland v France Guinness Six Nations clash at Aviva Stadium. Porter had latched onto Beirne to propel his fellow forward through the clearout, with referee Angus Gardner declaring it a rugby incident and explaining to French stand-in skipper Gregory Alldritt that Dupont’s injury had been an unfortunate accident.

France head coach Fabien Galthie saw it another way, referring Beirne and Porter to the match citing commissioner, as well as Ireland wing Calvin Nash for a head on head collision that saw the Irishman sin-binned and the victim, centre Pierre-Louis Barassi fail a Head Injury Assessment.

Galthie also called Beirne and Porter’s acts “reprehensible”, although the citing commissioner dismissed French protests and did not proceed with any of the citings.

Easterby held his team announcement press conference at Dublin Airport on Thursday ahead of Ireland’s departure for Rome and their final-round clash with Italy on Saturday and did not hold back when asked about French comments surrounding his players, with an implication they had been abused on social media as result.

"Without getting myself into trouble here, I just think it's the game, unfortunately,” Easterby said. “These things happen. No player goes out to intentionally injure another player. For the majority of people, looking at it afterwards, everyone felt like it was a rugby incident, which was really unfortunate.

"No player goes out to injure another player. It just doesn't happen. Whatever the insinuations were from different people, post-game, it's disappointing because the unfortunate thing is that people who don't really understand the game pick up on it, and it creates a bit of a shitstorm where people are getting abuse.

"It's just unnecessary, and it's not acceptable, but it happens. Those things could have been avoided had maybe other things been said post-game by certain individuals.

“The French camp have obviously come out pretty strongly post-game about the incident and it could have been handled in a better way. And I think on the back of that, it’s created some unnecessary ill-feeling and it’s affected other people in the wider group and that’s disappointing.” Asked specifically whether Ireland players were getting abused as a result of comments from the France camp, Easterby added: “I’m just saying that it’s unnecessary the coverage on social media, that’s all I am saying. I don’t read it, I don’t necessarily take a lot of notice of it but when it’s directed at certain individuals and certain individuals’ wider family group, then it becomes an issue.

"I think it could have been handled in a way that... we talk as coaches all the time and we chat post-game. I think it could have been a different discussion, a different platform to air those frustrations that maybe France had.

“We and World Rugby and the Six Nations believe that there was no case to answer and certainly it didn't help, it almost sort of fanned the flames of what was a really unfortunate incident. But it was a rugby incident and that's the bottom line. Unfortunately, these things happen."