PARIS: Superstar scrum-half Antoine Dupont was omnipresent once again as his club Toulouse claimed a third Top 14 and Champions Cup double on Friday but his mind now switches to this summer’s home Olympic Games.
French rugby’s poster boy Dupont was unplayable at times as the aristocrats of French rugby cruised past Bordeaux-Begles 59-3 in Marseille to add to May’s Champions Cup success.
The 27-year-old scored two tries and set up another less than a month from the 2024 Games’ men’s sevens final at the Stade de France.
A victory in Paris would be historic for Les Bleus, beating the women’s silver medal in Tokyo three years ago.
“I have one week of holidays before I join up with the Olympics squad,” Dupont told France Televisions after the victory.
“I will enjoy this, rest up to get there with a fresh mind and to be motivated to start again to win something else,” the 2021 World Rugby player of the year added.
Dupont’s ability seemed to have peaked in early 2022.
He had claimed Toulouse’s second ever double and lifted France’s first Six Nations in more than a decade.
They came a few months after he was named World Rugby player of the year.
This season, Dupont’s 15-a-side campaign started with a heartbreaking Rugby World Cup quarter-final defeat to eventual winners South Africa.
He has managed to put that to one side and in February he turned his hand to the shorter form of the game and was like a duck to water on his sevens debut in Canada.
A week later he helped Les Bleus to their first leg success since 2005 as they won in Los Angeles.
The former Castres half-back ended the campaign with another win, in Madrid.
The rookie of the year award followed having featured in just three of the season’s eight legs.
His two tries in the Top 14 final took him to 11 club touchdowns for the season, equalling his 2021 personal best.
“I think I’ve achieved much more than I could have dreamt of as a child,” Dupont told Canal+ after the Bordeaux-Begles’ rout.
“I have to realize it but not too much as to be able to keep dreaming,” he added.
Dupont has become a symbol of the increasingly healthy state of French rugby, with the national team and its clubs blossoming.
Since the sport became professional in 1995, it has been plagued with in-fighting between the French Rugby Federation (FFR) and influential clubs, such as Dupont’s Toulouse.
But his Olympic wish originating back in spring of 2022, was the fruit of the work done by FFR chiefs and Toulouse.
Dupont sat out this year’s Six Nations and was rested by his club for parts of the season, prioritising his seven-a-side obligations.
“What was amazing with what Antoine has done is that we called upon him in a sporadic way throughout the season and every time he’s been with us he was the player he’s capable of being in the big moments,” Toulouse head coach Ugo Mola told reporters after the final.
“I remain convinced that very few players can change their sport, I think in the few years to come he can revolutionize the sport.
“He might be able to have a go at rugby league too?” Mola jokingly added.
