Aurélien Canot, Media365, published on Monday December 16, 2024 at 9:39 a.m.
Put to the test by his opponents on Sunday during Toulouse's demonstration on the Exeter pitch in the Champions Cup (64-21), Antoine Dupont was very angry after the match with the referee, who gave the feeling of turning a blind eye to many situations.
Antoine Dupont and Andrew Brace will not spend their vacation together. Sunday after the meeting between Toulouse and Exeter which gave rise on the Chiefs lawn to a new walk in the park (64-21) for the title holders on behalf of the 2nd day of the Champions Cup, the star scrum half of the Stadium from Toulouse, interviewed in The Teamdid not take offense at the Irishman's refereeing. This summer's Olympic champion during the Paris 2024 Olympics with the French rugby sevens team had particular difficulty understanding how the Irish referee could have turned a blind eye to so many sequences of play – and more precisely delayed tackles – which would have deserved, in the eyes of number 9, an intervention on his part. “It happened to me four or five times in the first half and he only gives an advantage the fifth time,” complained Dupont, certainly aware that his way of playing exposes him to this kind of treatment from the opposing team – “I take a lot of risks because I have a game where I carry the ball a lot” – in the same way that he understood well on Sunday that a plan which had all the makings of an “anti-Dupont” plan “(even if he never used these terms) had been set up on the Exeter side), but not fooled for all that.
Dupont: “I hope this will be sanctioned more in the future”
And the best player in the world at XV three years ago, released at the hour mark due to a sprained left thumb, would like the regulations to be applied. “Once I make the pass, they don't have the right to send me away or keep me on the ground. These are strategies that teams can have but which are prohibited.” More generally, the player named this year as the best player on the planet but at 7 this time wants above all to send a message to the referees and the authorities. “It can only be dangerous and against the spirit of the game to tackle a player late (…) I don't understand why it is not sanctioned more (…) I hope it will be more in the future.” If Dupont has as much weight off the field as he does on the pitch, there is no doubt that this should be the case.
