Warren Gatland believes France miss the ‘individual brilliance’ of Antoine Dupont

Wales head coach Warren Gatland described the absence of France’s captain and star scrum-half Antoine Dupont’s from this year’s Six Nations as a “massive loss” for Les Bleus.

Dupont has decided to chase his Olympic Dream and has converted to represent his country in the sevens code in an attempt to play at the Paris Olympics later this year, putting his Toulouse and France career on pause to do so.

However, Les Bleus have struggled without their inspirational skipper and are currently languishing in fourth place on the Six Nations table, ahead of Sunday’s clash with Wales in Cardiff, after losing their tournament opener against Ireland before sealing a narrow win over Scotland and drawing with Italy in Round Three.

Praise for Dupont

A win for Gatland and his charges at the Principality Stadium this weekend will be Wales’ first triumph over Les Bleus since 2019.

“It just shows when you are with a team – and we have been lucky enough with this in the past and it is the challenge going forward – that having two or three X-factor players in your team can make a massive difference,” said Gatland.

“Sometimes you get two relatively even teams, but it is the individual brilliance of someone who can change a game.

“There is no doubt for me that Dupont is a massive loss for them. He is probably the best player in the world.

“We have already seen what he has done with the French sevens team. They won the sevens tournament (in Los Angeles).

“(Romain) Ntamack is a big loss for them in terms of that nine-10 partnership. It is difficult to put your finger on it.

“They have made some changes. They have probably thought they don’t feel like they can win the Six Nations, so there is a chance to give players in their squad an opportunity.”

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Although France have struggled without Dupont, Wales have not been at their best as well as they are yet to win a match after suffering defeats to Scotland, England and Wales.

Gatland has made some selection changes with first choice centres George North and Nick Tompkins dropped with Joe Roberts coming in to the starting XV to replace them while captain Dafydd Jenkins has been moved from lock to the blindside flank with Will Rowlands and Adam Beard packing down in the second-row.

“We’ve spoken to the two boys (Roberts and Watkin) about their roles. They have got a chance to make a statement,” Gatland added.

“The big thing for them – what I am looking for – is not about them playing, but them being vocal, making sure they communicate to the 10s and take that communication from the outside.

“That is a massive thing for us in terms of work-on, but also them realising how vocal they need to be in attack and defence.

“We had spoken early in the tournament about giving Daf that chance (at blindside). He was pretty excited when we did talk about it in one of the earlier games.

“When we said we were playing him at second-row, he joked we didn’t have the guts to put him in the back-row!

Physical challenge

“It is a good chance as a young player to get that opportunity in a different position.

“We know what a big pack France will put out and particularly that first 20 or 30 minutes. They were really direct against Italy in that time and could have been three tries up.

“We have got to expect a real physical challenge, particularly in the early exchanges of the game.”

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