upont will lead the French club’s charge to a record 23rd league title, as well as a domestic and Champions Cup double almost a month to the day before a possible gold medal decider at the Sevens event of the Paris Olympics.
The 27-year-old former World Rugby player of the year started off the French and European season with defeat in the World Cup quarterfinal at the Stade de France.
Since that agonising loss, Dupont has successfully turned his hand to the shorter code of the game.
He was named Sevens ‘newcomer’ of the year after lifting the Los Angeles and Madrid legs of the series, while also managing to helpToul ouse to a sixth Champions Cup crown in the 15-man code.
“Paris welcoming the Olympic Games was a big motor for the challenge,” Dupont told this month’s Tetu magazine.
“But it’s also come at a time in my career when I needed something new, to get out of my comfort zone, to put myself in danger.
he giant screens were already being erected midweek in the Place du Capitole where an array of Stade Toulousain shirts and banners billowed in the unseasonal tempestuous weather. It would take more than a downpour, though, to dampen the mood in La Ville Rose as their team packs its bags to head to London and Saturday’s date with destiny at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium against Leinster, the all-star (five to Toulouse, four to Leinster) shoot-out to determine the ChampiBouclier deons Cup winners. There is no sign that the people of Toulouse are sated with their team’s success – 22 s Brennus, ten in the professional era, the trophy-engraving expert kept busy with the addition of five European Cup titles. In a vintage shop in Rue Peyrolieres the (female) owner waxed lyrical about ‘their boys, their sons, the Toulouse family, the passing of the baton from one era to the next,’ with each iteration loved and admired for what they represent. You don’t travel far in the city without coming across the Rouge et Noir livery. It has long been this way.
And this generation are well aware of their responsibilities, in the Top 14 for that is a tribal affair through towns and cities and departments, but also in Europe. Stade Toulousain had a cross-border vision long before anyone else.
“This competition makes you dream and leaves a mark on you,” full-back Thomas Ramos told Midi Olympique in a wide-ranging interview. “Our team wants to meet the challenge (of Leinster) and make history. We want to be worthy of the stars on the jersey.”
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