France thrash Namibia 96-0, but Dupont injured in high tackle

Damian Penaud scored a hat-trick of tries as France thrashed Namibia 96-0 in a World Cup Pool A match in Marseille on Thursday, but star scrum-half Antoine Dupont went off injured after a high tackle.

Dupont, who had scored a try and produced two decisive cross-kicks, left the pitch in the 46th minute nursing his right cheekbone after Johan Deysel got his contact completely off-kilter in a nasty head-on-head clash and was sent off.

After the host nation had seen off New Zealand 27-13 in the tournament's opening match, a second-string side had struggled to a 27-12 victory over Uruguay. Neither win proferred up a bonus point.

Coach Fabien Galthie left no room for doubt for their third pool match in selecting a full-strength team that outclassed the Namibians in every facet of the game which produced a French record 14-try mauling.

But the overwhelming victory might have come at a high price, as Galthie faces an anxious wait after his talismanic skipper was whisked off to hospital.

France now have 13 points from their three Pool A games, three points ahead of second-placed Italy who play New Zealand in Lyon on September 29 and the French on October 6, both in Lyon as the race for the two automatic spots in the quarter-finals comes to a climax.

The victory came at the Stade Velodrome, home to crisis-ridden football club Olympique Marseille and the unlikely venue for a huge mass to be celebrated by Pope Francis on Saturday.

But any hope of spiritual guidance for Namibia on the turf where an estimated 60,000 believers will gather for the papal audience soon went up in smoke as France raced to four tries within the opening 21 minutes.

Dupont, yet to lose a match on home soil when captaining France in 14 matches, showed his awareness