France XV scrum half Antoine Dupont, who resumed contact training on Tuesday, took part in the helmeted session on Wednesday, four days before facing South Africa in the quarter-final of the World Cup.
The day before, he had started the session normally, chaining runs and passes without apparent discomfort, even colliding with his probable partner in the hinge, the fly-half Matthieu Jalibert. After fifteen minutes, once the journalists had left, the Toulouse man put on a black helmet before increasing his contacts with his partners. Dupont wore the blue chasuble stamped with N.9, that of the probable holders. The team composition will be announced on Friday by coach Fabien Galthié, around noon.
Vincent on Dupont: “Just his presence in the group will be important”
Visual and hearing tests
During Wednesday’s high-intensity training, he once again put on a black helmet with white trim, participating normally in the session. However, he kept his distance during the regroupings, moving to the wing. “We tested to see what it gave, to find out if it really protected or not. We wanted to check if his vision was impaired. In his hearing too, even if there was not the same noise, the same atmosphere in Rueil-Malmaison as at the Stade de France. We tried with or without. A decision will be made at the end of the week“, French attack coach Laurent Labit explained on Tuesday.
“Antoine is an intelligent person, he is a sensible person. If he says he can play again, it is because he is fully capable of doing so.“, explained third row Grégory Alldritt while scrum coach William Servat assured that “Antoine Dupont is doing very well“.”He remained involved, even during his rest period, even from a distance. He needed recovery but he was always concerned“added Servat.
Injured on September 21 in Marseille, operated on the next day in Toulouse, Dupont reunited with his teammates at the beginning of October in Aix-en-Provence for physical training sessions, doing a series of races and passes before settling on a bike training or rowing machine.
A leading figure in French rugby, leader of the French XV in search of a first world crown, Dupont received the green light on Monday from the surgeon who operated on him to resume contact training. An express return since after his fracture following an uncontrolled tackle by Namibian center Johan Deysel, several specialists estimated the duration of his unavailability to be at least four weeks.