Rugby: “Exceptional conditions for an exceptional player”, the president of Toulouse discusses Dupont’s departure for the Olympics

To “exceptional player”, “exceptional conditions”: everything is being done so that Antoine Dupont can best prepare for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games with the French rugby sevens team, said Didier Lacroix, president, on Thursday. from his club, Stade Toulousain. The head of French rugby will not participate in the next Six Nations Tournament with the Blues, in February-March, to be able to familiarize himself with the technical and physical specificities of 7, the discipline represented at the Olympics.

“We have had discussions about playing time so that he can train. This playing time will rather take place over periods of the France team (15th team). He (Dupont) had a choice to make on that,” Lacroix said at a press conference. “We are creating exceptional conditions for an exceptional player,” added the manager, whose club could especially be affected beyond the Games (July 26-August 11), at the start of the 2024-2025 season.

“If he is rinsed and he has the impression of not having cut for a while, we will have to ask ourselves the question of his recovery,” raised Lacroix. “The substitution of Antoine Dupont during this period is to be expected. How ? Are we adapting regulations? “It’s a very special case,” he asked.

The Toulouse president also estimated that Dupont and his teammate Romain Ntamack had “reached levels of media coverage and popular enthusiasm never before reached”. “I don't have the impression for the moment that we have gone astray in terms of attitude, of 'values',” he underlined. “I feel a lot of satisfaction that rugby and certain individuals have gained so much media and popular intensity. But I remain vigilant.

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