France v South Africa: Antoine Dupont not the first to play with a facial fracture

France continued to play their cards tight to their chest around the availability of Antoine Dupont on Wednesday. The French captain fractured his jaw in first half their 96-0 drubbing of Namibia on September 27th in the Rugby World Cup pool stages but has gone back training in full with the team at their base in Paris.

Namibia’s Johan Deysel was initially given a yellow card before a bunker review upgraded the card to a red for a hit that left the hosts without their playmaker for their final pool match against Italy. But this week there was an air of optimism that Dupont could make it back for their knockout quarter-final game against the Springboks on Sunday in Stade de France.

Dupont has engaged in contact training with the French players wearing a scrumcap, which he does not normally wear, and it has been suggested face protection that complies with World Rugby’s specifications could be devised.

World Rugby regulations say that there must be no hard materials and that a player must not wear any item of which any part is thicker than 5mm when uncompressed or is denser than 60kg per cubic metre.

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“We did that [wear scrumcap] to see whether it protected him or not,” said French backs coach Laurent Labit on Wednesday. “We wanted to check whether it hindered his vision. Also regarding his hearing, even if at [the French team’s base] Rueil-Malmaison there is not the same level of noise or the same atmosphere as at the Stade de France. We tried both with it on and off. We will take a decision at the end of the week.

“The first training session of the week was principally angled on our strategy. Therefore that was a positive he returned to join his partners and they get used to him again. He has different qualities to Maxime [Lucu] or Baptiste [Couilloud]. I am not concerned for him on the physical side, he has basically not stopped training in some form or other, there is no problem. If the surgeon gave his green light on Monday, it is because he thinks everything is in order. There is no need to go so far as to get him to box in order to know that he will be able to play on Sunday.”

If Dupont is selected to play with a fracture, he won’t be the first professional rugby player to do so. England centre Brad Barritt was labelled “the Terminator” after undergoing surgery on a fractured cheekbone only five days before Saracens’ Champions Cup quarter-final against Leinster in 2018.

Barritt had played on against Harlequins, not knowing the damage from an elbow had fractured his cheekbone on the left side of his face. Comparing the procedure to a visit to the dentist, Barritt described how doctors had made a small incision in his cheekbone under local anaesthetic and a titanium plate inserted.

“It was much like a routine tooth operation,” said Barritt at the time before taking his inside centre place opposite Isa Nacewa. “I had a horizontal crack in my cheekbone so I have had a titanium plate put in there which I’m told is now stronger than the other side.”

In 2010 Biarritz and French number 8 Imanol Harinordoquy broke his nose after an accidental collision with Sebastien Chabal before a home Heineken Cup clash with Munster in San Sebastián. Dubbed “Phantom of the Opera”, the French backrow arrived with a spectacular-looking protective device that covered the top half of his face, and which would be prohibited today by World Rugby under the provision that precludes “any equipment which has rigid materials”.

Harinordoquy, who subsequently cracked a rib playing in the game against Munster, stopped at various intervals for medical attention and was in obvious pain.

But Dupont trained with the French squad on Wednesday, again wearing a black scrumcap with a white border, and in a markedly more intense session than on Tuesday. This time he wore the blue vest which indicates the French starting team and from time to time he moved from his traditional scrumhalf position to line up on the wing.

“Antoine Dupont is carrying himself well in training,” said France forwards coach William Servat. All sounds good for the little general.