France's Yoann Huget's Rugby World Cup is over after knee injury
Saturday 19 September 2015 23:43, UK
Yoann Huget's World Cup is over after he suffered a serious knee injury in the 32-10 victory against Italy at Twickenham, France head coach Philippe Saint-Andre confirmed.
Huget went down clutching his knee in agony in the second half of the contest before being helped off the field and sitting with his head in his hands on the sidelines.
"It looks like Huget has done his cruciate ligaments so this is not the best news," Saint-Andre said after the match.
"He's a very important player and a lot of players from Toulouse are in this team and afterwards for four or five minutes we were quite shaky.
"Today we have a win and a bad injury but we need to carry on with a smile. It's a fantastic competition."
Rabah Slimani and Nicolas Mas were France's try scorers, with fly-half Frederic Michalak kicking 19 points in what proved to be a fairly comfortable evening's work for the French after a day of upsets.
France captain Thierry Dusautoir said: "It was our first game and we knew it was going to be a hard game because it's always like this against Italy. We're satisfied with the win today."
On the support for the team at Twickenham, Dusatoir added: "France is not so far so I hope they stay with us and continue to support us until the end of the competition."
Italy coach Jacques Brunel revealed that centre Andrea Masi ruptured his Achilles tendon and will miss the rest of the World Cup and possibly the remainder of the season.
"Masi broke the tendon and is the third centre we've lost in two weeks. It's the latest in a series of events that leave us with a bitter taste in the mouth," Brunel said.
Italy were missing captain Sergio Parisse to a knee injury but Brunel refused to blame the absence of their talisman for the defeat.
"The loss of Parisse is of course an important factor, but I don't think it's the main reason for the defeat," Brunel added.
"France deserved to win, but the scoreline doesn't reflect the game we played. We didn't understand the refereeing (at) the scrum."
