XV of France – Dupont: “30 points for the Blacks in an average game, it is very positive”

Thomas Sinicki, Media365 Posted on Saturday, September 9, 2023 at 12:50 AM.

It’s hard to be picky about the Blues captain, even if the overall feeling is a bit strange. But above all very encouraging.

Antoine, you talked about a tough game when you were about to give New Zealand 30 points. In your wildest dreams, did you imagine such a gap?
No, that’s for sure. The purely accounting balance sheet is incredible, put 30 points to the blacks in the opening… That’s the problem, or what makes us perform at a high level: we tend to remember the bad more than the good. We know we can do better, especially in the first half, and even in the second half when we let them shoot easily, we have to do better. Obviously, scoring 30 points in an average game is a very positive thing.

What made you win the confrontation in the second half? Confidence in yourself, without panic?
Partially, yes. We earned this collective trust with many different scenarios, which often ended in victories. We don’t panic when we get points, we just go home with simple things, the basics like conquering and kicking. We stay in the game, then we take turns and go, with contributions from the front and back. We felt this added value, and from there we took control. They made mistakes more easily, so we got them on penalties or got the points against the posts.

There was a lot of pressure at half-time, what did you talk about?
We had to free ourselves, we were somewhat restricted at the beginning of the game. We had to focus on pressing up the lines, we returned the ball very easily, we didn’t play three times in the line-up… And then we had to let the ball go in attack, and do that extra pass. We didn’t play as a team, not out of selfishness but because of this pressure and the weight of the opening match. We were safer, although that extra pass is fine, it’s more airy and easier. Also bearing in mind that we were in the game thanks to our defense and our win.

“A poster like this at 9pm makes for a very long day.”

What do you expect from the next match against Uruguay, which will be led by Santiago Arata, who you know well in the Top 14?
Above all, we’ll have fun and recover, and then Uruguay will arrive very quickly, with their very efficient and physical half showing their qualities every weekend in our tournament. Obviously we’ll have to keep an eye on him, we saw him flourish during the last World Cup and he’s kept getting better since then. It will be dangerous.

Back on Friday evening, it was very hot and humid, what was the effect?
The ball was more slippery, and the New Zealanders committed several hand errors because of this. When it gets to 30 degrees in a stadium like this, without much air, it’s not easy. We felt it during the warm-up, we sweated a lot and felt heavier. It’s hard to accelerate, and there were a lot of twitches. But it was the same for both teams. Perhaps this adjustment time partly explains our start to the game, but I’m not sure, because we reacted well and above all we finished well. This is what is very important.

Did you feel pressure during the day, on yourself or within the group?
First of all, it was very long, like a whole week. A poster like this at 9pm makes for a very long day (smiles). We stay in the room most of the time, spending time clearing our heads and thinking about something else. Just thinking about it would be heavy. We manage things well, even if we subconsciously want to do things well and therefore take fewer risks, which is not necessarily helpful. But again, we recovered well.

Have you heard from Julien Marchand?
We’ve seen the pictures, it’s ischemic hyperextension. We are waiting for the results, there is always anxiety and it is not easy, especially since we have not yet had a final diagnosis. Hopefully it won’t be too serious, but the World Cup is a long one. There will be more games, hopefully as long as possible… It’s never easy to see a friend and teammate get injured, but Mufaka’s return showed once again our depth in this position. . Pierre Bourgaret was still in the stands, so I’m not worried about the rest.