Paris: Toulouse superstar Antoine Dupont, who heads into the top 14 final of France with Bordeaux on Friday, knows what the scrum-half hopes will be a glittering summer.
Dupont will take a French club record 23 league and domestic goals and the Champions Cup a month before his chance to win gold in the men’s rugby sevens event at the Paris Olympics.
The 27-year-old former rugby player ended his season with a World Cup quarter-final defeat at the Stade de France.
Because of that terrible loss, Dupont has successfully returned his hand to the short code of the game.
He was named Rugby Player of the Year for the seventh time after traveling to Los Angeles and Madrid, while helping Toulouse to their sixth Champions Cup crown in the 15-man squad.
“Paris hosting the Olympics was a big driver for the challenge,” Dupont told Tetu magazine this month.
“But it also came at a time when I needed something new in my career, to get out of my comfort zone and take risks.
“Looking for a new environment, new teammates, a new system has done me a lot of good and I think I’m blossoming with rugby.”
Whatever the result at the Stade Velodrome Marseille, with the Stade de France unused due to Olympic preparations, Dupont’s calendar and the announcement of the seven French teams will be around July 8.
“Physically, it’s going to be tough until July,” Dupont said.
“But I have one goal, then I will rest.”
Bordeaux-Begles, in their second doubles match in three years with Dupont, made their first final appearance.
The best intermediate host club in world rugby, the team was formed in 2006 by the merger of Stade Bordelais and Club Athletique Begles Bordeaux.
Five years later, they were eliminated in the top 14 and lost in the last four rounds in the last three seasons.
“We have been crying for a long time, now we are smiling and going to Marseille,” said club captain Maxime Louque.
“There was a lot of disappointment, sadness, bad moments with the club, people said Bordeaux-Begles will not go through the semi-finals.
“We hear a lot, but we continue to believe,” added Lukas, a student in Dupont’s French team.
Both sides suffered injuries in the decision in front of a sell-out crowd of 67,000 on the Mediterranean coast.
Toulouse tighthead Cyril Bale is out with an ankle problem and Bordeaux-Beggles tighthead Ben Tameifuna has a shoulder problem.
“I think we have used 14 forwards this season,” said Toulouse coach Hugo Mola.
“We’ll have a lot of firsts, a lot of threes, a lot of 17ths and a lot of 23rds,” he said.
From 1892, it was their genius to side with Luke in his pursuit of Bouclier de Brennus against the aristocrats of French rugby.
The Bordeaux-Begles back line of Louis Bielle-Biarry, Damian Penaud and Romain Buros have scored 39 tries this season, more than double the Toulouse trio of Blair Kinghorn, Juan Cruz Mallia and Tomas Ramos.
“We hope on Friday, they are big fish,” Luke said.
“Toulouse is used to finals, horses, we are not.
“We’re going to be ready to go out there and do something good,” he said.
