France 2023 was supposed to be THE World Cup for the blues. If the popular festival was an interminable bacchanal, it resembled, for the XV of France and its scrum half, a real Greek tragedy.
The date of September 30 marks a very strange anniversary, which we would have done without as it symbolizes both collective hysteria and the excesses caused by the context of a World Cup at home. We are talking, here, about this somewhat surreal collective “hideout” of an audience of journalists, vaguely warned of the imminent return of the icon Antoine Dupont to the Renaissance hotel in Aix-en-Provence, after his now famous fracture of the maxillo-zygomatic and its week of rest on the side of its roots, in Castelnau-Magnoac. The day when we understood, confusedly, that the French XV would not win their World Cup, more concerned by the return to competition of a single man who would have been withdrawn without his particular status as the best player in the world (like the trauma experienced by football fans and “Zidane’s thigh” in 2002) than by the preparation of a possible quarter-final, to the point of doubting (sincerely) of succeeding in defeating with offensive bonus of Italians crushed the day before by New Zealand (96-17).
However, in front of the camera, Dupont’s cleverly staged return to training (all smiles on a wattbike, at the opposite corner of the Georges-Carcassonne stadium) had everything to arouse hope. Which was, however, crushed by incessant media pressure, keeping France in suspense, from the opening of the BFM TV news to that of France Inter.
Where was he? What was he doing? How was he? When would he come back? Could he play again? With a mask, a helmet? Quite unintentionally, Dupont was everywhere, whom the France group had great difficulty protecting from all this agitation. As since this sinister match against Namibia nine days earlier, in fine, which saw the captain of the Blues head center Johan Deysel right in the cheekbone, on a poorly controlled tackle. It was 10:06 p.m. and the Toulouse resident’s journey through the night was only just beginning, rushed to the Private Hospital of Provence – where he will be kept under observation all night – before being operated on the next day at Toulouse, just before midnight, of his fracture by Purpan hospital surgeon Frédéric Lauwers. A very late schedule linked to another unforeseen event: driven by his partner to return to the Ville Rose, the electric vehicle in which Dupont was traveling had been the victim of a recalcitrant battery which had to take the time to recharge in a parking area. highway, not far from Montpellier…
Too alone in the face of media fodder
Then came the day of the quarter-final, October 15. Was Antoine Dupont really able to start the match that day, given the “favorable treatment” that the Springboks were sure to give him? Physically, without a doubt, given his start to the match which saw him multiply initiatives, such as this handball penalty which resulted in Cyril Baille’s try. But psychologically? Probably not… Because if we can only salute the courage he showed for 80 minutes to overcome legitimate apprehension, it is clear that the pressure accumulated over many days (not to say long weeks, if we want to go back to Romain Ntamack’s injury on August 12 which deprived him of his usual partner) ended up exploding through his relationship with Ben O’Keeffe, in the cool of the Dionysian night. Where we saw Dupont, usually self-possessed and Olympian calm with the match officials, showing himself nervous then quickly quarreling with the New Zealand referee, to the point of definitively alienating him in money time. Questioned after the meeting on the subject, Dupont was unable to hide his frustration. “I don’t want to be angry and complain about the refereeing because he lost the match but I’m not sure that the refereeing was up to the challenge”declared the captain of the Blues after the meeting. A slippery slope on which his coach Fabien Galthié had not joined him, once again leaving Antoine Dupont alone to face his responsibilities and criticisms, including those formulated in these columns by the world boss of arbitration Joël Jutge. One time too many? We don’t hope so. But the one which, incontestably, convinced Dupont of the merits of his objective of competing in the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, in order to forget the worst moment of his career, even if it meant sacrificing a Tournament for which the Blues coach nevertheless tried until at the last moment to get it back. Without success, and without regrets for Dupont who, last week, had the metal plates removed from his cheekbone. A final, most symbolic surgical procedure, one year after this crazy year.
