England greats weigh in on Antoine Dupont’s ‘off day’ as Saracens ‘rattle’ Toulouse and France stars
Toulouse captain Antoine Dupont and an inset of England great Dan Cole.
Antoine Dupont had an ‘off day’ for Stade Toulousain as the French giants fell to a 20-14 Investec Champions Cup defeat at the hands of Saracens, according to England greats Dan Cole and Anthony Watson.
The France captain featured in his sixth match since recovering from an ACL injury he sustained in the Six Nations clash against Ireland last year.
However, this was the first game since his return that he had played the entire 80 minutes, but he was not at his best as the Champions Cup’s most successful team succumbed to a second loss from three this campaign.
Antoine Dupont’s underwhelming performance
Planet Rugby’s Louis Champman-Coombes scored the scrum-half 6/10 while Rugby Rama were less kind, rating him 4/10.
“The French captain hasn’t been able to make his usual impact with the ball in hand,” Vincent Franco wrote for the respected publication run by Midi Olympique.
Adding, “Shortly before the half-hour mark, the Toulouse scrum-half made a major error, allowing himself to be charged down by Théo McFarland. A few seconds later, Saracens scored their first try and completely changed their approach. A silly mistake with far-reaching consequences.”
Speaking on the For the Love of Rugby podcast, Cole said that Saracens successfully rattled Toulouse, which made things difficult for the number nine.
However, Dupont still failed to meet his high standards and Cole wondered whether his injury was influencing his performances.
“Sarries had them rattled because Toulouse weren’t getting their own way. They weren’t carrying across the gain-line. We talk about them being sloppy, but Saracens were in their faces, putting pressure on them, and Toulouse had to chase the game in the second half,” the former Leicester Tigers prop began.
“When Saracens got the ball, they kicked down the other end of the field, and they stuck at it, a dogged performance.
“I will say on Dupont, he has come back from an ACL injury, again, because the expectation for Dupont is so sky-high as the best player in the world, but it’s going to take time for him to get back.
“In this game, he was on the field for 80, but he never looked like the Dupont we know, bouncing people, the strength he has running around making holes and teammates running off him and stuff like that. When you do your ACL, how long does it take you to feel back to 100% or back to your sort of athletic best?”
Give him a ‘pass’
Watson, who suffered the same injury during his career, replied: “Like all of my injuries, it was an injury followed by an injury, so I had my ACL, and then I tore my calf. Fortunately, enough for me, I had a pre-season.
“Yes, I did have the worst calves in the Premiership; now that title belongs to Christian Wade. But no, I think that you’re absolutely right to point out that the expectations of Dupont are huge.
“It does take a while to get back to feeling your absolute self and not worry at all about your knee because it’s such a long process – 9 to 12 months being out with an injury.
“It takes a while just to be able to fully trust it in every scenario again. Ultimately, there are times when you’re on the field where you just can’t put yourself in that situation in training to have the confidence that you’re going to need in a game.”
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Still, Watson believes that Dupont deserves a ‘pass’ for his outing at the StoneX Stadium and suggests that his performance was a result of him being out of form.
“So, it is challenging. His rehab looked super thorough, as you’d expect with someone like Antoine Dupont,” he continued.
“So, I think we can give him a pass for a game. I wouldn’t be surprised at all to see him back absolutely ripping it up next week, because he’s obviously got massive expectations of himself as well.
“Everyone is different to answer your question. Everyone is different, but you do get some freaks who come back from their ACLs and rip it up straight away.
“I’d probably put that down to form more than anything else. I wouldn’t say that performance wasn’t due to his knee in particular or anything else. I’d probably say it’s just an off game.”
Cole agreed, stating that “even the best players have off days.”
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