Dupont was reportedly in tears in the French dressing room at half-time as his side led 8-6 and the sight of their captain in distress was described by team-mate Gregory Alldritt as firing up Les Bleus for the second half. “When I return to the dressing room and I see one of my best friends looking like that it tears up one's insides,” Alldritt said. “It is difficult to talk about. However, it added a bit of fire to our bellies for the second half." Ireland were ripped apart having taken a 13-8 lead shortly after the break, France scoring four second-half tries for a 42-27 bonus-point victory that sends them to the top of the Guinness Six Nations table with one round still to play, ending Irish hopes of a Grand Slam and putting their bid for a third title in a row in serious jeopardy. Dupont took to his Instagram account on Sunday to confirm the seriousness of his injury which will also seem likely to rule him out of Toulouse’s Champions Cup title defence and a potential semi-final against Leinster. Yet wished his national team-mates well as they prepare to face Scotland at Stade de France this Saturday night. “Rupture of the cruciate ligaments. This is the beginning of a new challenge, I’ll see you in a few months on the field.” Confirming he had ruptured his cruciate ligaments and will be sidelined for "a few months", the two-time World Rugby Mens’ 15s player of the year added: "My heart is more painful than my knee at this moment that I must abandon my friends before the final step. “I am proud of what we achieved yesterday and all my strength is with you, for you to go and succeed." Galthié had been seething during his post-match media appearances, telling France 2 Television Beirne’s actions were “reprehensible”. “In terms of the action, in my opinion it was reprehensible, and there are ways to study and analyse it. We feel for (Antoine) today. He is suffering and we are suffering with him. “The citing commissioner will decide whether these actions were reprehensible or not.” Alldritt had complained to referee Gardner immediately after the Dupont clearout and was told by the Australian official that it was an unfortunate accident that had been reviewed but the France head coach also took aim during his Saturday evening media conference at Ireland’s Andrew Porter for his part in propelling Beirne into Dupont’s leg. The yellow-carded Calvin Nash also drew Galthie’s ire for his head on head contact with centre Pierre-Louis Barassi, ending his involvement following a failed Head Injury Assessment. “There is a suspicion of a quite serious knee injury to Antoine,” Galthié said. “He is suffering – let’s say it how it is. I don’t want to go into details, mainly due to medical confidentiality. We have cited two players – Tadhg Beirne and Andrew Porter – in our post-match report (for the clean-out on Dupont). “We have also highlighted Calvin Nash to the citing commissioner for (the incident with) Pierre-Louis Barassi, who did not respond well to the HIA protocol. We had players who never came back on. “We are angry and we want an explanation; so, we have cited two players. We must protect our players. There are rules, regulations. There’s a sort of anger. I do not want to pass judgment on the quality of refereeing today.” Ireland interim head coach Simon Easterby, speaking to Irish media without knowledge of Galthie’s outburst, said of the Nash tackle on Barassi: “I'll go on record in saying I don't, and still don't, believe it was necessarily a yellow card. He was very passive in it and it was just one of the things.”