Fuming” – Antoine Dupont blames one ‘wrong’ referee decision for France’s quarter-final defeat

 In a heartbroken reaction, France’s star player, Antoine Dupont, vehemently criticised New Zealand referee Ben O’Keefe for a contentious decision that he believes significantly impacted South Africa’s thrilling victory in the quarter-finals on Sunday night.

The most contentious moment of the match unfolded early, during the seventh minute when France was already seeking their second try. Eben Etzebeth of South Africa extended his hand, intercepting a pivotal pass that appeared destined for a try.

Nevertheless, O’Keefe adjudged that Etzebeth had deflected the ball in a backward rather than forward direction. A short while later, the Springboks scored their own try, resulting in a 7-7 scoreline instead of what Dupont argues would have been a pivotal 14-0 lead.


Dupont said: “Well, what did you think from the outside? It’s hard to talk about things because there is a lot of disappointment, a lot of frustration. We want to see the images again, which will give us even more disappointment and even more frustration – but I think some clear and obvious things weren’t whistled.

“I don’t want to be a bad loser and moan about the refereeing but I’m not sure the level of refereeing was up the level of the game today. I don’t know if the match was lost at that point, but at crucial moments, we could have had a penalty. When you’ve gone forward 60 metres and you’re slowed down in the rucks, it’s pretty easy to whistle.

“That doesn’t take anything away from the South Africans’ great game, who got on top of us at the breakdown. They played a great game.”

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