Flamboyant Dupont inspires France to sorry Wales drubbing

PARIS :Antoine Dupont lived up to expectations as the mercurial scrumhalf made his Six Nations comeback in style to lead France to a 43-0 crushing of Wales in this year's curtain riser on Friday.

Dupont, who skipped last year's championship to prepare for the Olympic Rugby Sevens tournament, which France won, delivered a hat-trick of assists as Les Bleus handed their opponents their 13th consecutive test defeat.

France, who have only won the Six Nations once since Fabien Galthie took over five years ago, prevailed with doubles by wingers Theo Attissogbe and Louis Bielle-Biarrey and other tries by Julien Marchand, Emilien Gailleton and Gregory Alldritt with Thomas Ramos scoring the rest of the points from the tee.

Next weekend will be another affair, however, with a trip to England while Wales will travel to Italy.

"We adapted to the conditions in the rain and managed to get the bonus point, and a nice points average," Galthie said.

France encountered some stiff resistance early on but they broke the deadlock when Dupont's super crossfield kick was collected by Attissogbe for the hosts' first try.

Bielle-Biarrey quickly added another as he touched down from Ramos's final pass after a long possession spell had left the Welsh defence gasping for air.

Evan Lloyd was then sin-binned for a high tackle on Bielle-Biarrey.

Another Dupont moment led to France's third try, with the scrumhalf drawing defenders to him before throwing the ball wide to Attissogbe, who grabbed his second of the night without much of an effort.

Dupont completed a trio of assists before the interval with a long pass for Bielle-Biarrey, who avoided a tackle before touching down again.

It was then all about limiting the losses for Wales while Galthie had the luxury