the essential
At half-time, Antoine Dupont galvanized the French locker room, pointing out the weaknesses to be corrected. Gaël Fickou and Grégory Alldritt also motivated their teammates with mobilizing speeches.
A calm, precise and reasoned speech, which undoubtedly partly enabled the Blues to achieve one of the greatest successes in their history against the formidable New Zealanders. It is signed Antoine Dupont, captain, in the French locker room at the Stade de France, Saturday November 16.
At halftime, the French trailed by 7 points (17-10). And if they showed great intentions during the first 40 minutes, several points still have room for improvement. Antoine Dupont then takes stock and proposes solutions, during a captain's speech.
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“They attack all the rucks and they close the outsides to us. So there, the big ones (the forwards, Editor's note), it's going to be hard for you, but we're going to have to work in groups. […] We're going to have to work in the middle first before moving on to the outside,” the star scrum half can be heard saying in images released by the French Rugby Federation.
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In light of the result and the final scenario now known, the rest of Dupont's speech takes on prophetic aspects. He insists on the defensive aspect, which allowed the Blues to win by one point on Saturday evening (30-29): “In defense, it's the same, let's be compact! They have guys who play duels, they 'split' us every time, we suffer all the collisions when we are opposite, there is no problem that we make the efforts to be in front of them and catch them! “
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In the wake of Dupont, Gaël Fickou and Grégory Alldritt also spoke, asking for more movements during the rucks to allow “putting blue waves” on the Blacks.
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