The China Mail - Alldritt revels in 'historic' French performance to thrash Irish

Alldritt took over the captaincy when his friend and French talisman Antoine Dupont went off with a serious knee injury before the half hour mark.

Alldritt and head coach Fabien Galthie were both seething at what they saw as a deliberate attempt to injure Dupont.

Aldritt spent a fair amount of time trying to persuade referee Angus Gardner to review the moment when Tadhg Beirne fell on Dupont in a ruck but his appeals fell on deaf ears.

Nevertheless the La Rochelle No 8 said the incident added fuel to the French bellies for the second-half and that was illustrated as they came from 13-8 down to lead 42-13.

Aside from that the 27-year-old revelled in the manner of the win -- the French were the last side to beat the Irish in a Six Nations match in Dublin, in 2021 -- and which sets them up nicely to seal the title in Paris next Saturday against Scotland.

"It is something historic, I think one should not take this as banal what happened here today," he said.

"It is something abnormal that took place out there on the pitch."

- 'We did not tremble' -

Alldritt, who had an outstanding match and at one point early on prevented opposite number Caelan Doris touching down over the line, said such a marquee win did not come out of the blue.

"We did not steal this either," he said.

"We have worked really hard, we have made enormous efforts to be where we are, therefore we must appreciate it.

"But we must also recognise that when we do the right things on the pitch in terms of decision making, we are a very hard team to beat."

Galthie for his part was a much happier man -- his anger and upset over Dupont apart -- than the one who watched as his side blew a succession of chances in a narrow defeat to England last month.

"I would like to really congratulate our team, who were fantastic today, in incredibly difficult conditions.

"We gave nothing, we won everything."

Galthie reserved special praise for Maxime Lucu, who replaced Dupont.

"We were able to keep to our game plan," he said.

"I am happy for Max (Lucu) because he had a tough tournament last year.

"We certainly did not hand him a present when he came one.

"He had a huge match today, in an extremely hostile context."

It was not just Lucu who earned Galthie's praise as another who sparkled included Oscar Jegou, who scored his first Test try in the unfamiliar position of centre.

With Galthie selecting seven forwards and just one back - Lucu - on the bench, the 21-year-old back-row forward had to fill in at centre after Pierre-Louis Barassi went off with a head injury.

"We did not tremble up front and we did not tremble behind either," said Galthie.

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A.Kwok--ThChM