Antoine Dupont clearly can’t get enough. The captain of the French team, who had set himself the crazy challenge of switching to rugby 7s with the Paris Olympics in his sights, could now try his hand at positions other than his own. Invited to the viàMidol show on viaOccitanie on Wednesday, the Stade Toulousain coach confided that the scrum-half could be positioned elsewhere than in hinge.
“Antoine is the best in his position, there is no longer much dispute about that. He still wants to develop in this position and we still want him to develop in this position at the club. But he also has ants in his pants and wants to be exposed elsewhere,” reveals Ugo Mola.
Although he has already played in the fly-half position, he should not, however, swap his number 9 for number 10: “Thomas Ramos and Romain (Ntamack) are leading the way in that position, and we also have some youngsters coming through. We have Blair Kinghorn and Juan Cruz Mallio who can play there too.”
This does not prevent the French technician from already having a well-defined idea of the position that the Olympic champion in rugby 7s could occupy. “Antoine at the center position, and especially at 13, wants to be able to try a few matches. We want to expose him, but exposing him does not weaken him, so we have to find the right carburation, the right measure. But yes, Antoine will be exposed to other positions”, continues the coach of the Red and Black.
“We’ll have better players in the end no matter what”
This wouldn’t be the first time that the Stade Toulousain staff, the reigning double French champion, has experimented with new positions. Romain Ntamak, for example, has already played in the centre and Thomas Ramos in number 10. “Honestly, sometimes with Clément Poitrenaud and David Mélé, we have fun making some rather unusual line-ups. We have guys who are really talented,” says Ugo Mola, who does not want to lock them into one position.
“I’ve heard coaches ask me sometimes ‘but how can we get Antoine Dupont to play somewhere other than 9’, but the interest is what it feeds in him. Maybe it’s a failure in terms of immediacy. But it feeds things. And so whatever happens, we end up with better players,” he concludes.
But we will have to wait a little longer to see Antoine Dupont play, at number 9 or elsewhere, with Stade Toulousain. The Frenchman is still resting and should only return to competition at the end of September. He will therefore not be part of the group that will travel to the lair of RC Vannes on Sunday (9:05 p.m.) for the resumption of the Top 14.
- RMC Sport
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