the development of Antoine Dupont before La Rochelle
Zapping World Fifteen RUGBY CHAMPIONSHIP: The editorial team’s dream XV
Stade Toulousain is preparing to play a crucial match for its qualification, Saturday evening, against Stade Rochelais. A final before the hour, against the opponent that the Red and Blacks had faced in the last two Top 14 and Champions Cup finals.
The Toulouse are not in a very good position, with a 6th place in the standings and a qualification that hangs by a thread and is threatened by direct competitors, such as Lyon and Toulon. Antoine Dupont, put to rest for the previous match, is back in the Toulouse group. And for him, this fragile position does not put more pressure than that on the back of his team, as he indicated in a press conference:
“We lost matches that weren’t played out much, it didn’t turn out in our favour. We put ourselves in that position. Afterwards, we still have the cards in hand on these three last matches, in order to be able to play these final stages, even if in less comfort.”
Toulouse hasn’t been successful at all at La Rochelle in recent seasons. But at the moment, the dynamic seems better in the Maritimes, which has come out of two successful European matches in the round of 16 of the Champions Cup and three successive victories in the Top 14. Toulouse, for its part, remains on two defeats in the championship, and only managed one European Round of 16 game.
The captain of the Blues is well aware that we should not rely on the “pet peeve” aspect of Toulouse because things, precisely, have changed. But once again, despite this, the people of Toulouse do not feel suffocated by the pressure as they are eager to return to the final stages:
“They had a slightly more complicated start to the season, but in recent months they have proven to be very strong with performances against heavyweight teams, like during the triple confrontation against Bordeaux (…) We still have the cards in hand. hand. It depends on us. We have three games to play and three games to win, if we can. Even if we go through a play-off, which we managed to avoid in previous years, once we are in final stages, we know that everything can be played (…) There is no more pressure than that, we just want to taste this flavor again in June.
to summarize
Stade Toulousain is preparing to play a crucial match for its qualification, Saturday evening, against Stade Rochelais. Antoine Dupont does not want to let himself be overwhelmed by the pressure of their dangerous 6th place in the standings or their dynamic less good than that of the Rochelais.