On the eve of the shock of the 4th day of the 6 nations tournament between Ireland and France, Antoine Dupont said that the Blues have prepared this meeting in the best way and approach it with the desire to do very well.
It is a match in leaving or double for the XV of France. After the short defeat conceded in England, the players of Fabien Galkié must win this Saturday in Ireland to stay in the 2025 edition of the 6 Nations Tournament. On the occasion of the pre-match press conference, the tricolor captain Antoine Dupont said that “the spirit is changing a little” before a meeting of this magnitude. “There is more excitement and impatience, the week seems longer,” added the melee half of the Blues in comments collected by daily Le Figaro. Everyone set out to configure the event, everyone will have to be at their best.
Two years before the next World Cup, this trip to Ireland appears to be an opportunity to make an impression. If he concedes that “it is a super important match in (their) progression in this new cycle which (the) leads to the 2027 World Cup”, Antoine Dupont assures that “his result will not define what will happen these next two seasons”. But that does not justify taking this shock lightly. “It is always important to make a big match against the best world teams,” he says. And Ireland is one of the best world teams. As the event approaches, Fabien Galkié did not hesitate to focus on discipline and arbitration after the last outings of the XV of France.
Dupont: “We hope a just arbitration”
“We are the master of our game, not to commit faults,” first launched the captain of the Blues a few minutes after a last training on the lawn of the Aviva Stadium while saluting the qualities of the Irish defense. “They don’t have their equal to slow down the opposing rucks, with players at the limit of the rule. It’s very well done, conceded Antoine Dupont. It’s up to us to do their best to prevent them. And if they get the fault, we hope a just arbitration. A meeting that will be a new episode of growing rivalry between Ireland and France, both internationally and clubs.
“The last three editions of the tournament, it was they who won them,” recalled the tricolor melee half. There is also a story in Champions Cup, sometimes happy for them, sometimes for us, whether it is the Toulouse stadium or La Rochelle. “Affirming that Ireland” has been very efficient in recent years, with a very licked game, very rigorous systems in attack as in defense “, Antoine Dupont sees it as a source of motivation. “It pushes us to be at our best level to be able to compete with them,” he said. And it will take at least that to imitate the All Blacks, last winners of the XV of the clover in Dublin, it was on November 8.
