MARSEILLE, France: A serious-looking facial injury to captain Antoine Dupont took the gloss off France’s highest ever score, a 96-0 romp against hapless Namibia at the Rugby World Cup on Thursday.
There were 14 tries, including a penalty try, and Thomas Ramos converted 12 of 13. The Rugby World Cup’s seventh highest score was marred by his game-ending injury, after he was in a head-on-head collision with Namibia captain Johan Deysel in the 45th minute.
Deysel was yellow-carded for the dangerous upright hit while Dupont walked off in distress. He left Stade Velodrome immediately for hospital scans. “There’s a suspicion of a crack or fracture to his jaw.
He’s gone for tests,” coach Fabien Galthie said. “We’ll wait for the (test) results before moving forward.” Dupont will likely miss France’s last pool game against Italy in two weeks.