On Saturday, the Scotsman Finn Russell embarked Thomas Ramos and Matthieu Jalibert in an exchange of sterile kicks above their static teammates. Exploiting a loophole in the regulations brought to light by the former captain of the Blues.

It was he who, with good advice, had warned the referee that he was going to exploit the rules so as not to exhaust his forwards. Anglo-Saxon observers did not fail, after the meeting, to attack ‘the Dupont law’