rewrite this title France 43-0 Wales: Antoine Dupont dazzles in Six Nations opener with hat-trick of first-half assists

Antoine Dupont inspires France to crushing victory over Wales in Paris with three try assists; Wales kept from scoring in Six Nations match for first time as seven France tries go unanswered; Wales travel to Italy for crucial clash

Antoine Dupont starred as France thrashed Wales in Friday’s Six Nations opener in Paris

Antoine Dupont stole the show on his Six Nations return as France inflicted a 13th straight defeat on Wales with a crushing 43-0 opening-night victory in Paris.

After guiding France to rugby sevens gold at last summer’s Olympics, the Stade de France was once again rejoicing at the brilliance of Dupont, who assisted three of the four first-half tries wingers Theo Attissogbe and Louis Bielle-Biarrey shared.

Dupont’s mesmeric opportunism featured cross-field kicks and surgical dissections of the Welsh defence, who began their daunting assignment in the French capital positively but were ultimately forced into submission as they failed to score a point for the first time in a Six Nations game.

Louis Bielle-Biarrey dives over the line to score France’s fourth try

Theo Attissogbe score two first-half tries for France

With a bonus-point secured before half-time and the foundations for victory laid, Dupont’s cameo would last 50 minutes, before second-half tries from Julien Marchand, Emilien Gailleton and Gregory Alldritt hammered home France’s dominance.

The only blot on an otherwise perfect night for Fabien Galthie’s side was the dismissal of fly-half Romain Ntamack, who will miss Saturday’s clash against England after he saw a yellow card upgraded to red for a high challenge on opposite number Ben Thomas.

Wales were not expected to cause an upset in Paris, but the manner in which Friday’s chastening defeat descended into an ill-disciplined and toothless performance will raise concern ahead of next week’s crunch showdown against Italy in Rome.

Morgan: Wales can claim ‘significant’ Italy win

It was a demoralising Six Nations start for Wales, who finished only a point short of equalling their all-time worst defeat in the tournament of 54-10 against Ireland 23 years ago.

Captain Jac Morgan conceded a lack of discipline cost scoreless Wales.

“It was a tough night, obviously we are disappointed with the result. We knew how dangerous France can be.

“Discipline probably let us down quite a bit in that game, and against a team like France, they capitalise on your ill discipline and your mistakes, and that’s what they did today.

“Sometimes we weren’t quite accurate enough or clinical enough with the ball in hand, and we didn’t quite take our opportunities, and if you do a mistake then France will punish you.”

Jac Morgan has backed Wales to end their losing streak against Italy

Wales travel to Italy next, where they will hope to end their 13-game winless slump and take a step towards avoiding another Six Nations wooden spoon.

Morgan added: “Definitely there’s a lot good there, a lot of promise, and we know we’ve just got to stay tight as a group now and keep on building over the next few weeks.

“Italy is significant, and we will take it week on week. We know how tight and how close we are as a group, and we want to keep on getting better and keep on improving and that’s what we will do this week.

“Definitely we’ve got the talent. We’ve got a load of talent, and we’ve got a lot of hard work in the group, and that’s something we’ll go through next week and just keep on building, keep on improving, and that will come through.”

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