{"id":337645,"date":"2023-10-10T00:53:08","date_gmt":"2023-10-10T00:53:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=337645"},"modified":"2023-10-10T03:01:38","modified_gmt":"2023-10-10T03:01:38","slug":"face-mask-mystery-surrounds-worlds-best-rugby-player","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=337645","title":{"rendered":"Face mask mystery surrounds world's best rugby player"},"content":{"rendered":"

M\ufeffARSEILLE:<\/strong> France's hopes of winning a maiden Rugby World Cup<\/a> have received a huge boost after talismanic captain Antoine Dupont was cleared to resume full training ahead of the quarter-finals.<\/p>\n

Halfback Dupont broke his right cheekbone in an ugly collision with Namibia's Johan Deysel<\/a> in pool play last month \ufeffand missed the subsequent win over Italy.<\/p>\n

The 26-year-old, widely regarded as the best player in the world, will be allowed to wear a \ufeffface mask with a maximum thickness of 5mm as long as their is no "hard covering material."<\/p>\n

Watch all the action from Rugby World Cup 2023 on the home of rugby, Stan Sport.<\/strong><\/em> Every match ad free, live and on demand in 4K UHD<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

\"France<\/p>\n

France has gone rugby mad as it sniffs glory and a pack of hungry journalists quizzed the team's medical director Bruno Boussagol \ufeffabout Dupont ahead of Monday's (AEDT) huge quarter-final against defending champions South Africa in Paris.<\/p>\n

"The key factor is apprehension," Boussagol said.<\/p>\n

"We need to remain close to Antoine and help him across the board for him to be in the best position to apply for selection."<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> 'Laughing at us': Lynagh's fears for scarred Wallabies<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Wallabies player ratings from Rugby World Cup flop<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

<\/strong><\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Fiji knock Wallabies out of Rugby World Cup<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

\"Imanol<\/p>\n

The exact nature and look of Dupont's face mask \ufeffhas been a source of fascination in the local press.<\/p>\n

"We're working on it," Boussagol said.<\/p>\n

"He has received and has tested this kind of protection equipment.<\/p>\n

NEW PODCAST! Michael Atkinson, Sam Worthington and Tom Decent make sense of Portugal's historic upset of Fiji and Australia's Rugby World Cup exit then look \ufeffat some bumper quarter-finals<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

https:\/\/omny.fm\/shows\/rugby-world-cup-inside-line\/wallabies-review\/embed?in_playlist=podcast&style=Cover<\/a><\/p>\n

"There are two key points: His vision and his hearing can't be affected. There's a lot of noise in the stadium and Antoine communicates a lot. These two parameters need to be evaluated and tested during training."<\/p>\n

The news was not so great for France hooker Julien Marchand, whose hamstring injury has not healed in time for the quarters.<\/p>\n

"He needs to pass quite a lot of tests by the end of the week," Boussagol said.<\/p>\n

\"What<\/p>\n

"He's still with us because he has a genuine chance to be back on the pitch. We hope this is going to happen later next week."\ufeff<\/p>\n

France marched through pool play unbeaten despite being without their star No.10 Romain Ntamack.<\/p>\n

"(Matthieu) Jalibert's been fantastic and to do it as well without Dupont, who he's only just starting to become familiar with again – they've got so much depth," former Wallabies backrower Stephen Hoiles said on Stan Sport's RWC 2023 Central<\/em>.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/twitter.com\/StanSportRugby\/status\/1711218681307361639?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw<\/a><\/p>\n

"Their competition is so healthy over there in the Top 14. It's probably one of the few competitions in the world that is thriving both performance-wise and from a commercial point of view.<\/p>\n

"It was always Ireland and France one and two going into this World Cup and I think it still sits there.<\/p>\n

"They've played some tough games against New Zealand, they showed how they can do it when it's not easy and when they've had the chance to get some points on the board, they've looked classier than most teams."<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

M\ufeffARSEILLE: France's hopes of winning a maiden Rugby World Cup have received a huge boost after talismanic captain Antoine Dupont was cleared to resume full […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":334462,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/337645"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=337645"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/337645\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":337651,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/337645\/revisions\/337651"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/334462"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=337645"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=337645"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=337645"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}