Spared this Saturday in anticipation of the Champions Cup, the French international reacted to the defeat at Stade Toulousain on Instagram. Congratulating his teammates then aiming, a priori, to referee the match.
The face of French rugby has spoken. This Saturday evening, Antoine Dupont did not appear on the match sheet for La Rochelle-Toulouse, shock of the 14th day of Top 14 won at the last minute by the Maritimes (22-19) against the young Toulouse guard. The French international was in fact preserved – like his teammates Romain Ntamack, Thomas Ramos and Jack Willis in particular – before taking off on a private plane towards South Africa to challenge the Durban Sharks in the Champions Cup next Saturday.
Spared, Dupont obviously watched his team's match and, at the final whistle, shared an Instagram story that provoked reactions. “Proud of the talent and courage of young people, first wrote the Olympic rugby sevens champion, congratulating the bottle class of Toulouse who almost brought back a great result from Charente-Maritime. Before, in the same message, targeting the arbitration of the meeting.
The Latu clearing in the viewfinder
«On the other hand, the protection of the physical integrity of the players…”, he slipped. A priori, Dupont is referring here to the two contentious actions from which Stade Rochelais did well: a tackle deemed legal signed Reda Wardi on Valentin Delpy and especially the aggressive clearing of Tolu Latu with the shoulder on Simon Daroque, who left injured in the process. For many, Latu was happy to only collect a simple yellow card while the Toulouse scrum-half suffered a twisted knee upon impact. Obviously, Antoine Dupont did not understand this decision, which will have had an impact on the rest of the meeting.
