A leading figure in French rugby and leader of the French XV, Antoine Dupont, 26, received the green light on Monday October 9 from the surgeon who operated on him to resume contact training. He will face South Africa for the quarter-final on Sunday October 15.
Published on: 10/14/2023 – 7:00 p.m.
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Be careful, clash of titans at the Stade de France. Three weeks after his jaw operation, Antoine Dupont regains his captain’s stripes and his starting place for the World Cup quarter-final against the South Africans, the defending champions, on Sunday October 15 at the Stade de France. This will be the 52nd selection for the best player in the world 2021.
The tricolor, victim of a maxillo-zygomatic fracture on September 21 in Marseille during the river victory against Namibia (96-0), operated on the next day in Toulouse, reunited with his teammates at the beginning of October in Aix-en-Provence, initially content with light sessions before touching up the ball and then accelerating its return.
« I am at full capacity of my game »
« I feel very good. I took the time to come back, find hope again. My recovery went well. I was able to complete the necessary steps, I had several weeks : I am at full capacity in my game, my physical or technical means for Sunday », assures Dupont, game facilitator for his partners, by hand and foot.
« I really didn’t feel any pressure from the staff. If I play, it’s because I feel good. The lights are green. We respected the deadlines imposed from the start. The most important thing was my feeling, that I have no apprehension, that I do not play with the handbrake », continues the French rugby star. Sunday, he will play with a helmet.
Dupont is the only change compared to the starting XV which had passed Italy (60-7) through the mill during the last match of the group stage. He will therefore be associated in the hinge with the Bordeaux-Bègles opener Matthieu Jalibert.
For their part, the South Africans have planned a Manie Libbok-Cobus Reinach hinge rather than the expected Handré Pollard-Faf de Klerk. Veteran Duane Vermeleuen, 37, was also preferred to Jasper Wiese, who started against Scotland and Ireland. “ At the hinge, we estimated that Cobus [Reinach] and Mania [Libbok] were the players who gave us the best opportunities compared to what France will offer us », justifies coach Jacques Nienaber.
The memory of the lost semi-final of the 1995 World Cup
In the event of victory, the Blues will return to the semi-finals, a first since the 2011 edition. In the last four, France could face the winner of the match between England and Fiji. But before that, we will have to cross the South African mountain.
This France-South Africa match revives the memory of the lost semi-final of the 1995 World Cup. For South Africa, the host nation at the time, the tournament transcended the boundaries of sport. It was South Africa’s first participation in the Rugby World Cup after being banned from the first two editions due to apartheid. Even though the sport was a symbol of white domination and Chester Williams was the only non-white on the team, Nelson Mandela, elected president a year earlier after 27 years in prison, worked to transform the event as a symbol of reconciliation: a birth certificate of the rainbow nation, magnified by the world coronation.
Last November, in Marseille, France scored a twelfth victory in a row against the Springboks whom it had not beaten for thirteen years (30-26).
