FRANCE’S OLYMPIC HERO scrum-half Antoine Dupont returns to Top 14 action on Saturday in what Toulouse coach Ugo Mola hailed as a welcome boost for the struggling champions.
Dupont makes his comeback against Clermont two-and-a-half months after guiding France to the Olympic rugby sevens gold medal.
And Mola believes it will have an impact on the entire team after back-to-back defeats.
“(What) he gives to all his teammates through the trust he evokes, what he generates… we must not underestimate this.”
Dupont will make his first appearance in the Toulouse jersey since their crushing Top 14 final victory against Bordeaux-Begles in June.
“The first person to be happy about this return is obviously him. After two-and-a-half months, he was a little fed up,” said his teammate Dimitri Delibes.
“It gives the group a bit of a boost. He is one of the leaders of the team. He always has the right word, always the right advice.”
Since the 27-year-old’s Olympic success on home soil, Dupont was named the Top 14′s Player of the Seaason for 2023/24.
In his post-Olympics break, he spent time in the United States meeting Argentina football superstar Lionel Messi in Miami as well as NBA star LeBron James in California and visited the Los Angeles Chargers’ NFL set-up.
His return is timely for Toulouse after consecutive defeats against Bordeaux-Begles (16-12), the first at home since February 2022, then a 28-23 reverse at Castres last weekend.
In Dupont’s absence, the record 23-time French champions have started the new season sluggishly and are fifth in the Top 14 table with three wins from their opening five games.
Mola praised Dupont’s dedication for training several times with Toulouse during his time off as the scrum-half also prepares for France’s November Tests against Japan, New Zealand and Argentina.
He said Dupont was constantly “pushing the cursor” and was aware that he would be pilloried for any “lacklustre” performances.
“He knows that and he works accordingly. Maybe that’s one of the reasons why he doesn’t hang out too much on holiday,” Mola added.
Versatile Argentine international back Juan Cruz Mallia also returns to the southern side.
“It’s good to see the two again. They bring that confidence and that little extra,” said second rower Joshua Brennan.
Clermont fly-half Benjamin Urdapilleta was not relishing coming up against Dupont.
“He couldn’t have waited another week? We don’t have any luck,” the Argentine quipped on French radio.
His side are sixth in the table, one point behind Toulouse.
Leaders Bordeaux-Begles host Perpignan, while second-placed La Rochelle are at Bayonne and struggling Racing 92 play host to third-placed Toulon.
These two games against top English sides are great opportunities for Tom Ahern to propel himself into the Irish squad
@Kevin Ryan: izzy, baird, conan, pendergast and timoney all ahead at this stage.
@chris mcdonnell: stopped reading at conan….
@chris mcdonnell: I don’t want to knock anyone. They’re all good players of course; but I think we know by now that Prendergast and Timoney are pretty unlikely to ever establish themselves in the Ireland side. Ahern has the potential to do so.
@Niall English: The 42 is an interesting selection to have your mid life crises on
@Niall English: conan ahead of the lot of them. Not sure about the rest though.
@chris mcdonnell: I think Baird has moved down the Irish pecking order. Not sure the reason why but it seems he has. I think Ahern will be more used in 2nd row by IRL going forward but also cover 6 ahead of Baird. I think Izzy will eventually take a starting hold on that 6 jersey. Conan is an 8 who can do a job at 6. lineout skilks wouldn’t be his strength though and that works against starting him. My feeling is POM will start v England at 6 or at least be on the bench. No doubt he’s behind many others in general play but our LO is critical to starting the 6n’s well and he’s still our best LO jumper.
@Michael Corkery: He’s only started 9 times at 6. Munster have won a grand total of 1 of those games. Putting that to one side, it’s still manifestly obvious that he should be concentrating on second row, given both his height and the number of options at blindside.
If Munster were talking about the good things they did against Leinster, it was a short talk. We need the injury list to clear up, it would be great to pick a 23 match day squad that isn’t influenced by injured players.
Don’t know why Munster are always going on about O’Mahony these days. The guy is busted flush, worn out and too old. Not his fault now. Munster have to pick Ahern ahead of him and bench him. We lost to England last year because he wasn’t at the races with the young English back row so we lost another grand slam because he wasn’t up to it.
@Jimmy Bean: i do recall doris getting grossly outplayed by ben earl in that game also, not the first time hes gone AWOL when the chips are down.
@Niall English: Mr Bean only sees what he wants to see.
@Niall English: He left VanDFl and Doris on their own to play by themselves against the English. He was benched for the South Africa tour so it’s just not me who thinks he’s past it.
@Leonard Barry: Lotta beans on here
@Jimmy Bean: you know the French saying « No scrum, no win ». I got a similar one for the upcoming England game, « No lineout, no win ». Certainly PO’M is not as good as others around the field, but if our lineout calling and throwing is going to continue to be as bad as it has recently, the 2nd best defensive LO in the world is going to have an absolute field day. We’ll need PO’M on the bench at the very least. He can win it at the front if all else fails.