Shaun Edwards, responsible for the defense of the French XV in Fabien Galthié’s staff, was reassuring about the state of health of Antoine Dupont, operated on Friday evening for his maxillo-zygomatic fracture. “I would be surprised if he is not available for a quarter or a half,” confides the Englishman in the columns of the Daily Mail.
He explains that he met the captain of the Blues on Friday morning, in the breakfast room, after his night in the hospital. His face was “a little swollen.” Edwards recounts his worry at the time of the injury, during Marseille’s match against Namibia: “Antoine is very strong, so when he went down we all knew it was something serious.”
The former London Wasps coach says the atmosphere in the locker room was not the same as when Romain Ntamack was injured. “Everyone knew that Romain was out for seven or eight months and the news had emptied the locker room of its substance. This time it’s different. It’s a very different injury and we had just won 96-0, so some of the boys were able to enjoy a beer after three very intense matches.”
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Shaun Edwards says he suffered a similar injury during his playing days. “They operated on me the next morning. It’s a very painful injury, but a broken cheekbone is easier to deal with than a broken jaw.”
If he hopes for the return of Antoine Dupont, he is not worried about the players likely to replace him, at scrum half or in the role of captain: “We have excellent scrum players and d excellent leaders who will rise to the occasion. Baptiste Couilloud came off the bench and almost scored a hat-trick. He had a remarkable impact. As for the captains, Charles Ollivon has already done it and Gaël Fickou is an exceptional leader.
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