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French misery compounded by Antoine Dupont masterclass for Toulouse
The last thing any France supporter would have wanted to do over the weekend was to venture onto rugby social media, where they would have been forced to relive their record loss to Ireland in round one of the Guinness Six Nations.
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To make matters much worse for anyone brave enough to go online, their feeds would have been peppered with videos of none other than Antoine Dupont tearing it up in the Top 14.
The former France captain will miss this year’s Championship as he gears towards representing France Sevens at the Paris Olympics this summer, but in his last match for Toulouse on Saturday before teaming up with the sevens team for the Vancouver and Los Angeles legs of the HSBC SVNS Series, he put in a display that showed Fabien Galthie’s side just what they are missing.
The 27-year-old produced some moments of magic in Toulouse’s 46-26 win over Bayonne that would be some of the standout moments of another player’s season.
It is not unreasonable to say that Dupont’s assist for Pierre-Louis Barassi’s try in the final play of the game at the Stade Ernest-Wallon could not be replicated by another person on the planet.
The break, the pass and then the cross-field kick were all just another indication as to why so many deem Dupont to be one of the greatest players of all time already.
La folie, L’Alien Antoine Dupont ! pic.twitter.com/c54G1f4UtV
— 🛸👽 (@jooo0033) February 3, 2024
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That assist was so good that his silky one-handed flick for Pita Ahki’s try in the first half pales into insignificance in comparison, and that in itself was quite special.
Strangely, this was a match where Dupont scored a try himself, making a sniping break to run in unopposed from 30 metres out, but that was eclipsed by his handiwork elsewhere.
To make his performance even more notable, he was playing at fly-half instead of playing at his more familiar scrum-half.
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Un mot pour décrire ce geste de @Dupont9A sur l’essai de @AhkiPita ? 🔥#STAB pic.twitter.com/mJIwk8Hr3l
ADVERTISEMENT— Stade Toulousain (@StadeToulousain) February 5, 2024
France were always expected to struggle without their talisman, but no one knew just how much they would until it became all too apparent at the Stade Velodrome- albeit not helped by a red card to Paul Willemse.
Clips of Dupont’s display will not be pleasant viewing for France as they prepare to face Scotland this weekend in Edinburgh. The only solace they can take is that he will return one day.
Comments on RugbyPass
Let’s not forget about Ardie Savea just yet.
4 Go to commentsThe URC and the Euro Championscup can’t run at the same time, basically dilutes both competitions.
1 Go to comments“While Sotutu should start at No.8 for the All Blacks against England, but it’s only in that arena that he can prove just how good he really is.” And that my friends is where simply hasnt shone despite multiple opportunities. Even in this performance you can see what did him in in the test arena..he almost always still runs at the opposition almost ramrod upright making him easier to stop than it should be.
4 Go to commentsShould have been 0-0 and a message from SR CEO to both teams - “don’t worry about turning up next year”.
4 Go to commentsGreat work Owen Franks. A great of this team, scoring his first try for the Crusaders since 2010.He was beaming, justifiably. A fine win, he and the rest did the job up front.
1 Go to commentsDanny Care. Lang in die tand.
1 Go to commentsBig empty stadium does nothing for atmosphere but munster are playing well with solid performance
1 Go to commentsYes, Fiji can win the World Cup! With that belief plus their christian faith🙏 and hard work it is achievable. Great article. Ian Duncan Fiji resident 1981-84
2 Go to commentsInteresting comments about Touch. England’s hosting the Touch World Cup this year and the numbers have exploded since their last World Cup in 2019, something like 70% more teams and 40 nations taking part. And England Touch have made a big thing about how many universities are in their BUCS University Touch Championship as well as Sport England membership. Can only see this growing even more domestically as more people become aware of it
10 Go to comments“Cortez Ratima is light years ahead of anyone on current form, while TJ Perenara has also skyrocketed into contention following the unfortunate injury to the talented Cam Roigard.” At last some sanity. Hitherto so many pundits have been wittering on about Finlay Christie to the point one wondered if they were observing a FC in a parallel universe where the FC they saw wasnt just the mediocre Shayne Philpott project of Fosters hapless AB reign in the real world. Ratima, Perenara and Fakatava are the ONLY logical 9s for Razor now Roigard is crocked.
4 Go to commentsThis game was just as painful as the Hurricanes game. It was real fork-in-the-eye stuff.
4 Go to commentsNow if they could just fire the Crusaders ground PA guy who likes to play his dance music and just loves the sound of his own voice the entire game, even when play is going on. And I thought their brass band thing of a few years ago was bad.
5 Go to commentsUnfortunately when you lose by far the two form players this season in Roigard and Aumua, you're left replacing two game changing Tanks with a couple of pea-shooters. Which is also about the speed of TJs pass.
4 Go to commentsBit rich coming from the guy with zero loyalty to anyone or any team, including happily taking a players place in a league world cup squad because well, SBW wanted to play in it and thus an already named player got told he was no longer going. And airing stuff like this, which may or may not be true, doesn't exactly say you're a stand up guy either SBW. Just looking to keep his name in lights as usual.
38 Go to commentsTamati Tua. …the Taniwha NPC midfielder. Ollie Sapsford, Hawkes Bay NPC midfielder…doing well
4 Go to commentsFiji deserve to be in the rugby championship, fans love seeing the Fijian national team play, the Fijian Drua is a wonderful idea but the players can still be stolen to play for NZ and AUS…
2 Go to commentsThe first concern for this afternoon are wheather forecast…
1 Go to commentsWhy cant I watch Rugby games please?
1 Go to commentsBeautiful shot from Finau, end of story. Gutted for Shaun Stevenson though.
4 Go to commentsThe Chiefs definitely didn’t win ugly. They had the superior scrum, a dominant lineout, and their defence was excellent once the Waratahs scored their two tries (thanks to some lucky refereeing calls mind you). They put pressure on the Waratahs lineout throughout the game, and the mind boggles as to why the referee did not award a yellow card or a penalty try against the Waratahs for repeated scrum infringements on their own try line before Narawa’s first try. And the Chiefs were slick with their passing and running angles on attack. It was a dominant performance all round, even with many questionable refereeing decisions.
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