A second-half injury to France skipper Antoine Dupont eclipsed a record win over Namibia which virtually sealed a place for the hosts in the last eight at the rugby union World Cup.
Dupont went off in the 47th minute at the Vélodrome in Marseille with a face injury after his Namibia counterpart Johan Deysel tackled him.
Referee Matthew Carley handed Deysel a yellow card which was upgraded while he was in the sin bin.
When Deysel’s head thudded into Dupont, France were leading 54-0.
They scored another 42 points once the 26-year-old had left the fray.
“We are never happy when a player gets injured,” lamented France coach Fabien Galthié. “We are extremely concerned.”
But his vaunted meticulousness is likely to face intense scrutiny should Dupont’s injury prove serious.
Before the game, Galthié had talked up the planning and strategy needed for a successful campaign.
He said there was a Darwinian element about triumphant teams: they adapt.
After such declarations, singular refusal to extricate a prime specimen in a game that had been won may come to be considered hubris.
Dupont was among several stars who missed France’s second game against Uruguay after having performed so spectacularly in the opening day win over New Zealand on 8 September.
Fly-half Matthieu Jalibert had also sat out the Uruguay victory.
It took the dynamic duo five minutes to start the rout against a Namibia side that lost their previous Group A games 52-8 and 71-3 against Italy and New Zealand respectively.
Dupont collected the ball from a scrum nudging towards the Namibia line and kicked it over to the right.
Skill
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