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New Zealand warned of 'serious mistake' when playing Dupont
New Zealand have been warned of a serious strategic pitfall in playing France and their iconic scrumhalf and captain, Antoine Dupont, at the Stade de France tonight in the opening game of the Rugby World Cup.
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Dupont, who is widely regarded as the best rugby player on the planet, is no doubt a generational talent but a former France Test star has warned against the folly of targetting the Toulouse man at the cost of forgetting about the rest of the star-studded French side.
Xavier Garbajosa – speaking on French television – says that while the All Blacks will no doubt target the 26-year-old, that can’t be the totality of their game plan.
“When we see the quality of the player, it is better (to make an anti-Dupont plan). At a given moment, when we play an opposing team, we try, beyond making a plan, to counter the forces present,” said the current Lyon head coach.
“In fact, the objective of the Blacks will surely be to leave as little space as possible to Antoine Dupont, to mark him in the pants, to try to suffocate him, so that he cannot find the connection with Matthieu Jalibert, that he can’t find any space around it.
“Now, Antoine is the captain of the France team and has his role as number nine, but there are others around him. Focusing solely on Antoine Dupont would be a serious mistake, as the French team has a plethora of qualities in all its lines.”
Whatever about the threat that France poses, statistics certainly favour New Zealand. France have lost 14 of their last 15 Tests against the men in black, although Les Bleus’s solitary victory in that run came in the most recent meeting between the two nations in their 40-25 clash in November 2021.
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Overall, France have won 13 of their 62 Tests against the All Blacks, with no other European side having beaten New Zealand on more than eight occasions.
However, arguably in France’s favour, the opening game of the men’s Rugby World Cup has been won by a host nation in seven of the previous nine tournaments.
The only exceptions were England’s defeat to New Zealand in 1991 and France’s opening-round loss to Argentina in 2007.
Comments on RugbyPass
Interesting 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
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2 Go to commentsThis game was just as painful as the Hurricanes game. It was real fork-in-the-eye stuff.
2 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.
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37 Go to commentsTamati Tua. …the Taniwha NPC midfielder. Ollie Sapsford, Hawkes Bay NPC midfielder…doing well
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1 Go to commentsThe first concern for this afternoon are wheather forecast…
1 Go to commentsWhy cant I watch Rugby games please?
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1 Go to commentsWasnt late. Ref 2 assistants andTMO all saw it so who are you to say it was?
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5 Go to comments🤦♂️🤣 who cares who’s the best . All I know is the All Blacks have the star coach but have few star players now …
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11 Go to commentsEver so often you all post a Danny Care story that isn’t the announcement that he has finally re-signed for one more, victory tour season at Quins and I’m just like, “well you fooled me again!” My absolute favorite player ever, we need to make his final year at the Stoop (and Twickers) official already. I know he supposedly snubbed France but I won’t feel better until he signs.
1 Go to commentslate hit what late hit it wasn’t at all late and can clearly see he was committed before the tackle
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