# ‘I’ve done nothing wrong’: Ireland’s Porter hits back over Dupont injury

* France coach Galthié furious over loss of pivotal captain
* Prop says he had ‘no malicious intent’ in incident at ruck

The Ireland prop Andrew Porter insisted “I haven’t done anything wrong” as he hit back at France’s head coach Fabien Galthié amid the fallout over Antoine Dupont’s season-ending knee injury.

_Les Bleus_’ captain – widely regarded as the world’s best player – faces a lengthy spell on the sidelines after rupturing an anterior cruciate ligament during his country’s . France were furious with the incident which caused the injury, with  as he announced his intention to refer Porter and his Ireland teammate Tadhg Beirne to the citing commissioner for possible retrospective punishment.

Porter, who – in addition to Beirne – is free to feature in Saturday’s final-round fixture away to Italy, said he had “no malicious intent”. “He can say what he wants, see how far it gets him,” Porter said of Galthié. “No, I wasn’t disappointed . I knew what I did; I didn’t go out to try and injure anyone. That’s not the type of player I am. If he  wants to think that, that’s up to him. I even sent Antoine a message on Instagram just to see how he was and obviously you never want to see anyone going off the pitch like that.

“If you have the head coach calling for your head, it’s a bit much to be fair. But he’s such a pivotal player for them that they nearly don’t want him to be touched at all. Look, he’s entitled to his opinion but I know I haven’t done anything wrong there. I sleep well at night.”

Dupont was visibly upset when he limped from the field in the 29th minute of Saturday’s match after Beirne, who appeared to be pushed by Porter, fell on the Frenchman’s right leg, causing it to buckle. France’s anger fuelled a breathtaking second-half display as they turned a slender 8-6 advantage into an emphatic demolition job to move into pole position for championship glory and halt Ireland’s grand slam bid.

“Their leg got trapped in between a ruck when he was trying to counter it and he just got trapped and went over,” Porter continued. “It happens so much in this sport. There was no malicious intent surrounding it at all. It’s obviously unfortunate and unlucky.”


_Photo: Clodagh Kilcoyne/Reuters_

Ireland had hoped to travel to Rome on the verge of an historic third consecutive  title, but Simon Easterby’s side are now in danger of finishing third on the back of a first home loss in the competition in four years. Ireland must win at the Stadio Olimpico and then hope second-placed England and table-topping France slip up against Wales and Scotland, respectively. “It’s not easy moving on from a game like that,” Porter said of the sobering weekend loss.

“You can’t dwell on the past too much. But you’d be lying to yourself if you said you weren’t still thinking of that game. It was just a few small mistakes on the day really. We’re not going to let something like that shake us.

“We know exactly who we are as players and as a team. We know exactly what we can do, it just didn’t click for us on Saturday. If anything, it’s emboldened us to go out and produce the rugby we can play. We’re not out of the competition completely yet. It’s everything to play for. We get to go out and play this weekend and right a few wrongs.”

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Meanwhile, Romain Ntamack feels it is “totally incomprehensible” that the terms of his suspension differed to the sanction handed to Ireland centre Garry Ringrose.

The France fly-half returned to action in Dublin last weekend after missing two Six Nations matches following his red card in the round-one win over Wales. Ringrose is available to feature in Ireland’s championship finale in Italy on Saturday, having sat out only one Test match - Ireland’s defeat to France - as punishment for his dismissal against the Welsh.

While Ringrose was permitted to count a Leinster fixture as part of his ban, Ntamanck was unable to include a club match in his punishment. “There is an injustice here, because I believe our case was also based around how one of the matches in my suspension I would play for Toulouse,” the 25-year-old said before Saturday’s game against Scotland.

“And when 10 days later the complete opposite  is decided in contrast to what the commission told me that is in every shape and form totally incomprehensible. I think we must start pounding our fist on the table because it is time these decisions going against us and costing us dearly stop.”

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