He definitely has all the talents. In the range of its unsuspected powers, Super Dupont released Friday evening that of transforming bad memories into moments of joy. Nightmares in dreams. And the Marseille Vélodrome, that of his red card received in 2022 against South Africa, that, above all, of his famous fracture to his cheekbone during the last World Cup against Namibia, has become the scene of his last feat.
In this stadium that screamed his name like never before when the teams for the Top 14 final were announced, Antoine Dupont gave Stade Toulousain its 23rd Brennus shield, his 4th personal one, by defeating Union Bordeaux-Bègles in the final (59-3). A 3rd historic Top 14-European Cup double, also, for the Toulouse team, more dominant than ever, in the wake of their sparkling scrum-half.
The red and black captain warded off bad luck in the boiling Marseille stadium. Toto didn’t tell himself any stories when he entered the pitch that he had to leave in tears last September, his maxillozygomatic bone fractured against a Namibian, shattering his World Cup dream. “It doesn’t really bring back good memories to see the exit I left the stadium by a few months ago,” he admitted on the eve of the match. “But it was a completely different context. You have to try to put all that aside.” Clearly, the trauma has been forgotten. In the thick of things, Dupont has made the Vélodrome his garden.
An individual masterpiece for an exceptional essay
As much before three-quarters, we first saw him charge with the shoulder near the Bordeaux line to go and score the first Toulouse try with force (7-0, 6th). Then distribute the game intelligently to serve Peato Mauvaka for the second (12-0, 20th). Before offering himself a small masterpiece, a burst in the axis followed by a small kick over his opposite Maxime Lucu, for his double in the 23rd minute. Dupont wrapped up the match.
Blunt, clumsy, without energy with Matthieu Jalibert on one leg, the Bordelais really didn’t need that. The margin was too big between UBB and these Toulouse, reigning European and French champions, leaders of the regular phase of the Top 14, and huge favorites in this one-sided final.
Olympic champion in a month?
Even if everything was not perfect on the Toulouse side either at the end of this grueling season. Two balls lost on referrals, an empty pass from Romain Ntamack, three points conceded while they were in numerical superiority. Even Antoine Dupont experienced a bit of waste: a blocked kick, another directly into a dead ball, a ball dropped forward near the Bordeaux goal.
But that’s very little compared to everything else. He was still there to improve on a difficult ball and open the gap to Romain Ntamack, for Ramos’ try shortly after the hour mark. Before leaving to a huge ovation and “Dupont, Dupont” chanted by the Vélodrome, at the moment when his Stadium finished humiliating the UBB.
A Dupont in Olympic form, then, in the OM stadium. That’s good, Super Dupont is following up with the Olympics with the French rugby 7s team, which he already took to the roof of the world at the beginning of June in Madrid. Nothing can resist him and in almost a month to the day, he will return to the Stade de France to, if all goes well, win an Olympic gold medal. A Stade de France where he also remains on a bad memory: the cruel elimination in the quarter-finals of the last World Cup against South Africa. No matter, we now know that Dupont can transform nightmares into dreams. France, at the moment, really needs the talents of such a magician.
