“At Antoine Dupont, the man is of the same level as the player”

This is the challenge taken on by our colleague Grégory Letort, journalist at “La République des Pyrénées”, who presented, on Wednesday December 4, his work “Antoine Dupont, hors norm” at the Tonnet bookstore in Pau. An “unauthorized biography” according to its author, without the intervention of the principal concerned, “player difficult to access, we had to do without him”. Too bad: Grégory Letort wrote a work on Dupont without Dupont, told by those who knew him – Jean-Baptiste Elissalde, Fabien Pelous, etc. – from his beginnings in the oval at Castelnau-Magnoac, before passing through Lannemezan, Auch, Castres and finally Toulouse.

Unanimously welcomed

Through 11 chapters which return to his science of the game, his mental strength, but also the extra sporting aspects, everyone uses their anecdote to praise a player ahead of his time. “Antoine, who was no taller than three apples, takes the ball and goes to score on his own, all the time,” remembers his first coach. “It’s good, we have the new phenomenon of French rugby,” says visionary Ugo Mola, coach of Stade Toulousain at the time of Dupont’s signing in 2017.

Wednesday evening, during the presentation of the work at the Tonnet bookstore, the author also recalled the good nature of the character. “The interesting thing about writing an unauthorized biography is telling the darker side of someone. There, there is none, because there is nothing negative to say about Antoine Dupont! », smiles Grégory Letort. “The man is of the same level as the player. » Out of the norm therefore.