Since the last World Cup, Antoine Dupont, scrum half and captain of the Blues, has struggled to find his best level with Toulouse. He himself admitted it this Friday. “We cannot survive all the matches,” he defended himself on Friday, “aware of (his) current level” on the eve of starting the Champions Cup at home against Cardiff. But the criticisms made by certain observers about the best player in the world in 2021 were not to the taste of manager Ugo Mola, who insisted on reframing Marc Lièvrement, former coach of the XV of France, and Mourad Boudjellal, ex-president of the RC Toulon.
“That Mourad Boudjellal, who has mastered his subject on image rights, asks questions about the image rights of Antoine Dupont, I think it would have been more skillful to take care of it at the time . And maybe he could give us some keys to find out how it works, he said. Marc Lièvremont is in his role as consultant, a former coach who hasn’t coached for a very long time… There are plenty of opinions, but for me, the opinion and the general opinion on Antoine don’t matter much. »
And the Haut-Garonnais technician added: “It doesn’t bother me that these criticisms come from people outside the industry. They bother me more when they are coaches, or people who have played. Because they know that in 11 months of season, you will play three, four, five competitions, and that can be complicated. We sometimes have a bit of amnesia about that. That Antoine does not shine as he did, we internally do not think so, and we will give him time. For me, if there remains the Antoine that you find average, and that everyone finds dull, if he remains at that level, I will be satisfied with him…”
