French rugby chief Florain Grill has criticised the "disturbing" actions of referee Angus Gardner after Antoine Dupont suffered a season-ending injury against Ireland. The talismanic scrum-half ruptured his ACL during the first half of the clash in Dublin, after Irish lock Tadhg Beirne fell on his leg at the breakdown. While World Rugby have looked to clamp down on players targeting opponents' lower limbs at the contact area, Dupont's injury was deemed a rugby incident by Gardner, who did not proceed with an official review of what caused the injury. “I genuinely hear your concerns and you’ve got to trust us that we’ve reviewed it," the Australian offical was heard telling stand-in captain Gregory Alldritt following the incident. “Mate, sometimes in rugby, unfortunate as it is, people get injured, so I completely understand.” After the game, France filed an official complaint against Beirne and teammate Andrew Porter for their part in what led to Dupont's injury, with head coach Fabien Galthie describing their teammate Andrew Porter as "reprehensible". However, it has since been confirmed that both men have escaped sanction. But a frustrated Grill says France will explore ways to appeal the verdict, having been "shocked" by Gardner not carrying out an official review into the incident. “Anger must not take over and we will respect the final decisions," the FFR president told L’Equipe. "But we are determined to activate all possible appeals to make our voices heard. “What shocked us, or bothered us, is that the referee did not go and study the images of Antoine’s injury himself. We find that disturbing. Eventually, we will be heard." Grill, who has been the head of French rugby since 2023, also said that earning "more respect" with World Rugby will be key to them winning the next Rugby World Cup - arguing that doing so will mean they get "balanced decisions" from officials. France have already voiced their frustration towards rugby's disciplinary process during the current Six Nations, after claims that there were double standards in the recent bans handed out to Romain Ntamack and Garry Ringrose. Both men were suspended after dangerous tackles on Welsh centre Ben Thomas, but Ringrose ultimately missed just one tournament match while Ntamack was ruled out for two. “It inspires me that we still have work to do,” he said “If we want to be world champions in 2027, we must earn more respect at World Rugby and the Six Nations. We decided with Fabien and Jean-Marc (Lhermet, vice-president of the FFR) to never give up on anything. We started to invest in the commissions and working groups. “We bring data, visualisation, rational things to make decisions. We have two and a half years for France to be heard to its fair extent and for the decisions to be balanced.”