What will Olympic gold medalist Antoine Dupont do next?
France's rugby sevens gold medalist Antoine Dupont. Picture: JOEL SAGET / AFP
France’s prodigal rugby son could return on Saturday when Toulouse host Clermont at a sold-out Stade Ernest Wallon, 11 weeks after he won Olympic gold in Paris.
Antoine Dupont was ‘in good shape’ on his official return to training, and was ‘in contention for a place in the squad’, Toulouse said on Monday. The two sides’ 23s are confirmed on Friday.
Dupont has packed a lot into his mandated time off after the better part of two years of carefully managed but non-stop rugby for club and country.
Deep breath … he has (briefly) danced in front of Olympic crowds at both the Stade de France and on the Champs-Elysees; carried the tricolore at the Games’ closing ceremony; been awarded the Legion d’Honneur by a vicarious glow-basking French President; partied in Ibiza; watched some America’s Cup in Barcelona; tried a lazy hand at American Football with the LA Chargers; and met LeBron James and Lionel Messi.
He’s featured in TV adverts for a French pharmaceutical company and a cryptocurrency firm; been named Top 14 Player and International Player of the Year at the annual French rugby awards ceremony; temporarily put his family home in Castelnau-Magnoac on Airbnb; and sung Celine Dion songs on broadcaster France 2.
Oh, and he’s become the innocent focus of a storm in a selection teacup for France’s 2025 July tour of New Zealand. All Blacks’ officials are, apparently, ‘livid’ that he might not travel in nine months’ time and have demanded clarity from the FFR and an intervention from World Rugby.
But enough about what Antoine did on his holidays. Or, indeed, what he may or may not do next summer.
Smart money suggests a bench return seems most likely. A home outing on Saturday in front of the adoring Toulouse faithful makes the most sense given the fixture list.
After Clermont, he has three more chances to get some 15s gametime in his legs – away at Pau, at home against Toulon, then at Bayonne – before Les Bleus face Japan, New Zealand and Argentina in November.
Right now, though, his club needs Dupont. Three wins in their first three matches concealed strange and unusual Toulouse frailties, but forgivable ones given their cripplingly short preseason after a double-winning campaign.
The jeu des mains, as always, remains very much in evidence. But the formidable set piece and pack oomph foundations of the jeu de Toulousains are creaking.
Against Castres last Saturday, Toulouse conceded six scrum penalties and international tighthead Dorian Aldegheri was yellow carded less than 15 minutes after coming on as a replacement.
Injuries aren’t helping. Toulouse are without long-term injured Cyril Baille, Nepo Laulala, and Alban Placines. Santiago Chocobares returned from Argentina duty and went straight into the infirmary. Jack Willis and Mathis Castro Ferreira are training again but may not be ready for this weekend.
Something more, however, has changed since. En route to their Champions Cup and domestic double, Toulouse won several Top 14 games with second – or even third – string teams. So far this season, however, things haven’t quite clicked.
It’s the downside of last season’s success. Toulouse have been here before. They did the double in 2021, got off to a blistering start the following September, then shuddered to a halt. But covid was partially to blame then. It isn’t, necessarily, now.
Head coach Ugo Mola recognised his players haven’t fired on all cylinders from the outset. “Despite the results, I know that our current rugby is far from what we are capable of playing,” he insisted, after their third win in a row – a flat 20-11 victory on the road at Montpellier.
Many thought he was over-managing expectations. After all, Toulouse had already put 43 on the board on the opening day of the season to beat promoted Vannes in darkest Brittany, then got the better of Ronan O’Gara’s La Rochelle 35-27 at home a week later. That insipid performance in victory at the GGL was merely a blip, the thinking ran.
But, then Bordeaux claimed their first win at Stade Ernest Wallon, ending Toulouse’s 33-match unbeaten Top 14 home run in the process. And Castres came back from 11-20 down at halftime to win 28-23 down the road at Stade Pierre Fabre. Thomas Ramos kicked their only second-half points three minutes from time to salvage a bonus point.
Toulouse slipped from first to fifth. Mola noted after that last defeat, in his French metaphoric manner: “We can be brilliant at times, like in the first half, when we played a perfect away game, and other times when we pedal off the bicycle.”
Dupont may not be the answer to all – or indeed any – of Toulouse’s current problems. But he is undoubtedly the outstanding player in an exceptional list of recent and current absentees making the early defence of their titles more difficult than they would like. If he returns on Saturday, you’ll hear the roars from Toulouse in Cork.
If he helps engineer a first victory in three games, chances are you’ll probably feel the warm waves of relief, too.
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