Antoine Dupont ready to respond to Sale’s challenge
Zapping World Fifteen THE XV TYPE PHASE GO
For all the French Top 14 clubs, it is to return to the Champions Cup or the Challenge Cup. Stade Toulousain must confirm its first two victories this weekend by cooling down on the side of Sale. It’s a sacred match that awaits the men of Ugo Mola, against the English who will want to take their revenge.
Anthony Dupont. in a press conference, was well aware on Wednesday of the high challenge that awaits his team against the Sharks. This does not prevent him from being confident and sure of the strengths of his group for this shock.
Like any team, when it suffers a heavy defeat, it wants to show another face. This will be the case at home, in complicated conditions, with important players who will return. We will be on hostile ground there but I think we have the weapons to respond.
Nothing really plays for Toulouse on Saturday: neither Sale’s big desire to bring them down, nor even the weather conditions. But none of this is an excuse for the Rouge et Noir scrum-half, who wants to show that his team can adapt to anything.
We will have to adapt to the conditions, that’s for sure. But this competition requires adapting to the adversary. Part of the Champions Cup is played in winter, so we are used to these weather conditions. And when on the goals that are ours, you have to be able to play in several ways, to spread the ball when possible or to be more restrictive when the need arises.
(…) The weather conditions will perhaps fix them, they have a strong pack and like to dominate physically, to put the game on foot. They stick to what they love to do. It’s up to us to respond to physical intensity before thinking about the game.
If the players of Sale remain upset by the big defeat experienced in the first leg, the Toulousains also remain on a big disappointment: the defeat against Stade Rochelais. Is this trip across the Channel the perfect opportunity to get your head straight, even if it’s a different competition? Maybe. Antoine Dupont, who was off on this match, knows in any case that such a disappointment must remain exceptional.
There was a lot of disappointment. Beyond losing, the score is heavy. And we have images in mind on the fact we really suffered. It’s not something that happens to us often. One can find many reasons but some are not justifiable. It will happen to miss once but we will not have fifty jokers.
to summarize
After the heavy disappointment in La Rochelle last weekend, Stade Toulousain must switch to the Champions Cup and the trip to Sale. Antoine Dupont, back for this shock, is confident about his team’s ability to meet the big challenge that the Sharks will impose.