Give him a bike, a racket, and a few months. And perhaps we will resolve the French shortages on the Tour de France and Roland-Garros. We joke, but he doesn’t. A little over a week after winning the Champions Cup with Stade Toulouse after an exhausting final, Antoine Dupont is celebrating, all smiles among his partners, his new trophy. The French rugby star went to get this one in Madrid, with his new rugby sevens family, where his talent and his express ability to adapt helped lead the Blues to the coronation in Madrid, the final tournament of the season to crown the winner of the world circuit as a bonus.
“He sets the standards for the XV players who come to this discipline. And they are very high,” says the Irishman Hugo Keenan, dominated with his Leinster by the scrum half and he also traveled to Spain to attend the outings of the phenomenon. There weren’t that many of them. The hero was very tired, to the point of leaving him in the stands on Friday for the start of the match against Australia and making him a very luxury replacement for the rest of the weekend.
In the final against Argentina (19-5), as in the three other matches he played, “Toto” returned in the second half. But without ever sparing. If Internet users were blown away by his impressive fuss to go for the test on Saturday against Great Britain, Dupont stood out with his collective involvement. Two assists, including the one for his captain Paulin Riva in the final, but above all tackles in all directions and flawless involvement in the rucks to do the dirty work.
“He does a lot of good”
“He brings his freshness and his experience. Frankly, he does a lot of good,” breathes his partner at Stade Toulouse and with the Blues, Nelson Epée. Its impact on its partners is obvious, with two coronations in Los Angeles in March and in Madrid on Sunday for a team which had not won a tournament for 19 years. Antoine Dupont focuses the opponent’s attention, boosts his partners and highlights this discipline.
“We have incredible athletes in all the teams, but he brings a different focus on rugby sevens that we did not have before him” recognizes the general director of World Rugby, the international federation, Alan Gilpin. “I’m still learning,” says the person concerned modestly. Above all, it contributes to making these Blues one of the announced favorites for these Olympic Games at home in less than two months. And, whether or not he carefully avoids putting himself in the center of the image when his captain lifts the trophy on the stage of the Civitas Metropolitano stadium, has everything to be one of the stars of the French delegation.
