Classy response from France's talisman

The French talisman tore his ACL in March's Six Nations clash at the Aviva, and was forced to miss the remainder of the season, returning only in November with Toulouse.

While French head coach Fabien Galthie reported Porter and Beirne to the citing commissioner, Dupont has come out with a classy response at the launch of the 2026 Six Nations.

Asked if he had any ill will towards the Irish pair, he said: "Honestly, no. I think it was just an accident. It happened sometimes on the field, unfortunately.

“I don’t feel that it was intentional. Both of them sent messages on social media, so no, I don’t think so.”

Dupont's France face Ireland in the Six Nations opener at the Stade de France on Thursday 5th February.

Beirne: Social media backlash was enough punishment

The citing commissioner eventually ruled that Beirne and Porter had no case to answer, though Beirne said that the abuse he and his family had received on social media was enough of a punishment.

He said earlier this year: "I'm sorry for the fact that did happen to him, you don't like see it happen to any player," the Munster captain said.

"But the backlash myself and Porter and our families got afterward was probably enough punishment for us on its own, to be honest with you."

"I reached out to him. I messaged him on Instagram. I tried looking for him after the game as well, but I couldn't get to him, he was obviously with medical teams.

"You know, he has a million followers or something on Instagram, I'm pretty sure he's not going to see a message from me, but look, it's all I could do at the time. I sent my regards through Gregory Alldritt [France vice-captain] as well.

"It's an incident, obviously, where you can slow it down and it can look bad, but it's an incident that wasn't intentional. I never intended to injure him. The last thing I want to do is injure the best player in the world.

"You don't go out there to hurt anyone but it was just unfortunate the way it happened."