‘I wasn’t surprised at all’ – Blair Kinghorn on Antoine Dupont’s sensational 13-minute hat-trick on his Toulouse return
Split with Antoine Dupont and Blair Kinghorn.
Toulouse utility star Blair Kinghorn claims he was unsurprised by Antoine Dupont’s stunning hat-trick on his return for the club in their 48-14 win over Clermont last weekend.
Dupont had been on a break from the game after winning Olympic Gold in Paris with the France Men’s Sevens side, capping off a brilliant year that also included the Champions Cup and Top 14 titles with Toulouse.
The talented scrum-half was named on the bench for the clash against Clermont and came on just after half-time with immediate impact. It only took Dupont three minutes to get on the scoresheet and he did not stop there, bagging a quick-fire hat-trick within 13 minutes.
Antoine Dupont scores 13 MINUTE hat-trick off the bench in sensational return for Toulouse
Not surprised
Kinghorn, who has had great success since joining Toulouse last season, admits he expected that kind of impact from the Frenchman.
“I wasn’t surprised at all, I don’t think anything surprises anyone anymore,” Kinghorn said.
“It’s good to have him back. He’s had a massive year, so it’s nice for him to have a bit of down time.
“It’s now back to work, enough travelling around for him,” he added with a smile.
Scotland hopes
Kinghorn is likely to feature for Scotland in the autumn and he feels the success of Glasgow Warriors last season where they claimed the United Rugby Championship title could be of benefit to the national side.
“It’s only going to be good for the national team having players who have had a taste of success in big games,” Kinghorn said.
“For a long time that wasn’t the case.
“Hopefully for the next campaign it will be good,” he added.
Scotland open their end-of-year Test campaign against Fiji which falls out of the Test window, meaning Kinghorn will be unavailable, before hosting the Springboks, Portugal and Australia.
READ MORE: Top 14 round-up: Antoine Dupont strikes gold, Manu Tuilagi controversy and battle of the Vunipolas
