Antoine Dupont fractured cheekbone, France 96 - 0 Namibia, Thursday 21 September, 19h, Stade de Marseille, Rugby World Cup 2023

Oh, les Bleus. Oh, Antoine Dupont. Dès que le match été fini, j'ai demandé à mon contact si tu pouvais gagner la Coupe sans Dupont.

Ce n'est pas seulement la Coupe, c'est peut-être la première. Que Dupont mérite d'avoir en jouant sur le terrain et en tant que capitaine. Que la France mérite sans doute.

Maybe it's not relevant, but France lost the Football World Cup. Argentina so deserved it, but France did incredibly well, even if they made a late, typically French, comeback.

They don't deserve another loss. Even if Dupont becomes yet another of many motivations to win, it will be a bittersweet one. Winning on the pitch is not the same as on its sidelines. I haven't even thought of the next Cup, if France win it this time around, likely they won't next time. If they don't this time, but do the next, I can't say. But if they had two consecutive wins, wouldn't that be beautiful, and if the next was with Dupont?

On a personal note, that would mean France are tied with two consecutive wins with the All Blacks, who I love. Nice.

Malon went down against the All Blacks, now Dupont is down. Is this a weird player trade off?

One thing Dupont's possible exit has done is my faith in les Bleus has not wavered. I still believe they can win, but I'm worried. I feel for Dupont, and France. The Namibia captain Johan Deysel sent his best wishes and apologies to Dupont and the team. If Dupont can continue playing, especially all his next matches, I'll be relieved. You imagine that cheer if he returns to the pitch? That feeling of support would overwhelm anyone.

Antoine Dupont, I hope you return to play, however many games you play, but you leave having done what you needed to do, with millions proud of the effort you have put in.

You will be sorely missed if you end up watching from the sidelines.

Moi, et beaucoup d'autres sont avec toi, et la France.

-A.M.

Rugby World Cup 2023 men's teams' rankings update

It seems like https://www.world.rugby have actually calculated the rankings for the men's teams although the date is still 28 August 2023.

                          21st      28th  Difference  Rank

Ireland           91.82     91.82       0               1

NZ                   90.77     89.06     1.71         2 to 4

South Africa  89.37     91.08     1.71        3 to 2

France            89.22     89.22        0           4 to 3

France beat Australia 41-17 on Sunday 27th August which is 24 points difference.

South Africa beat New Zealand 35-7 on Friday 25th August which is 28 points difference.

4 points difference between the matches, 28-24.

It goes to show moving up the table seems hard, South Africa and France went up one place despite knocking the wind out of their opponents. When you think about it, purely from a numbers point of view, there are only 2.76 points between Ireland and New Zealand, which is nothing really.

My point on rankings still stands.

My one about the haka does too.

Come on France and New Zealand, you've got to be in the final, and play a fantastic match. No one would turn down the opportunity of watching that!

(And thinking a bit more deeply, who wouldn't love to see the All Blacks pick themselves up for a slamming opening match and preferably great, consistent games throughout the tournament.)

-A.M.

Rugby World Cup 2023 men's teams' rankings

I could be ignorant in how rankings are calculated, but that doesn't matter, here they are below from https://www.world.rugby

Note this was on 21st August and the All Blacks were 2nd.

I love it, even after the All Blacks historic defeat by South Africa and France's win over Australia, on 26th and 27th August respectively, the All Blacks are still 2nd. *

As a side note, especially for those ambivalent or against the haka, do you really think it helps the All Blacks performance? **

-A.M.

* yes I know it's just an indication and you can't base a team or guess the Cup outcome on their ranking

** this could be used as an excellent example to finish any argument over whether the haka should be performed