Paul Rouget, Media365: published on Thursday November 7, 2024 at 3:46 p.m.
For his big return with the XV of France after more than a year of absence, Antoine Dupont, who also regained the captaincy, admitted that he had been hazed by his teammates.
Such a long wait… Not seen with the French XV for over a year, and the elimination of Fabien Galthié's men against the future South African winner in the quarter-finals of “their” World Cup (28 -29), Antoine Dupont found Marcoussis at the start of the week. And this in order to prepare for the test matches of the autumn tour, against Japan on Saturday at the Stade de France, then a week later against New Zealand and on November 22 against Argentina, still in Saint-Denis .
Absent from the Six Nations Tournament to devote himself to the French rugby sevens team, with whom he won the gold medal at the Paris Olympic Games, the scrum half from Stade Toulousain was happy to reunite with his teammates , also delighted with his return, like François Cros who sees him “as strong, if not better” than before.
“I didn’t feel lost”
Dupont, who will recover the captaincy, also revealed that he had to undergo hazing for his reunion with the XV of France. “It went well… I just had the right to a very slight hazing on my return: they made me do the war cry at the end of the first training session, he confided at Midi-Olympique. I hadn't left for ten years, either.
He also mentioned this captaincy, which coach Fabien Galthié had entrusted to Grégory Alldritt in his absence: “I am proud to fulfill this mission but with Greg, we didn't even need to talk about it. We know each other well enough to be able to ignore that, whether it's him or me, we will work the same way for the team Before the staff made their decision, I told Fabien anyway that I would respect the choice, whatever. let it be.” A choice which does not seem to suffer from any dispute.
