Fabien Galthié offered to lend Antoine Dupont his glasses after the France scrum-half kicked the ball out of play a minute early in Sunday’s 24-17 win over England.
With France camped on their own line, Dupont dug the ball out of the ruck and kicked it dead in-goal, thinking that time was up on the clock.
Unfortunately for him, the match clock had just ticked past 79 minutes rather than 80, and he gave England a five-metre scrum.
That proved crucial as England secured a losing bonus point from their defeat, and while there was a little frustration for Dupont, he took it in good humour.
He said: “I thought it was the 79th minute and the match was over.
“When I put my head in the ruck I thought we were at 79.58 or 79.59. I was certain that it would go past 80 minutes. Tough luck, there was still a minute to play! It worked out in the end, even if they got a losing bonus point. We can laugh about it, although it could have been more costly.
“I’ll put in contact lenses for the next match!”
His coach Galthié took a similar view on the incident, even joking that he had offered Dupont his rather unique glasses.
Galthié said: “There was a little problem with his vision and clock management. I offered him my glasses this morning. It’s all part of the game, we are allowed to make mistakes. Maybe it was an issue with the lighting.”
Team manager Raphaël Ibanez jokingly added Dupont had tried the glasses in front of the rest of the squad and the effect was even worse.
