Antoine Dupont slowly pushed his headgear back and placed his palms on his head. His look, captured by the television cameras, expressed less sadness than disbelief and bewilderment. The World Cup will continue for two more weekends, until October 28th, at the Stade de France in Saint-Denis. But it won’t be the same without the French team, which has invited the best rugby nations to this seven-week global celebration of ball sports heavyweight athletes. And without Antoine Dupont, 26, the farmer’s son from Castelnau-Magnoac in the south near Toulouse, head and strategist of the Bleus and, for many, the most talented rugby player of the moment.
It was not Dupont’s fault that France narrowly lost to defending champions South Africa, 28:29, on Sunday evening in front of 79,500 spectators in a phenomenal game with hooks and feints, insane speed and brutal force. He had given everything, much more than a team, a country, a Grande Nation could ask for with a clear conscience. Dupont had his face smashed for the three-time World Cup finalist’s mission to finally bring the title and golden Webb Ellis Cup to France. It was only in the week before this quarter-final that he returned to Bleus team training after breaking his jaw and cheekbone.
Doctors approve Dupont’s return after several facial fractures – reportedly
The incident occurred on matchday three of the World Cup, on September 21, in a game against Namibia, which France won quite easily 96-0. In the 46th minute, Dupont was riveted down and an onrushing opponent, Johan Deysel, rammed his skull into the face of the 2021 World Rugby Player of the Year. Rugby is a sport of raw strength and full physical effort. Richie McCaw, the two-time world champion from New Zealand and former captain of the All Blacks, once called the lawn fight a “collision battle.” This is precisely why dangerous tackles are prohibited, discipline is the top priority, and headbutts are punished with immediate dismissal. An association court suspended Deysel for five games after the red card suspension. Dupont underwent surgery in Toulouse. According to media reports, the surgeons allegedly allowed him to return to the fray just three and a half weeks later.
In the sport of tough men, he is not the first to be willing to risk personal health for collective glory. The New Zealander McCaw, charismatic champion of the All Blacks, played not one but several games at the 2011 World Cup on home soil with a broken foot. He couldn’t walk, didn’t train for a minute in three weeks, but saw it as his duty to direct the pitch every time the game kicked off. Legend has it that McCaw refused to have his foot x-rayed – so as not to give doctors an excuse to remove him from the squad. “Adrenaline is a great painkiller,” he said succinctly; only months later did he admit that with every step he thought he was stepping on hot coals; How else the foot was anesthetized was not discussed publicly.
Antoine Dupont is as irreplaceable to the Tricolor team as McCaw was to the All Blacks twelve years earlier. Nobody plays more passes, nobody has more overview in the crowd than France’s number “9”. He protected his head with a cap and perhaps plunged into the close combat a little less offensively than usual, but he was in control of the action for the full 80 minutes in a duel against South Africa, which offered the spectator two halves with different spectacles: Speed including six tries from the ball sprinters before the break; then the heavy athletes push and tact. The Springboks from South Africa may have saved the decisive point when the speedy Cheslin Kolbe – in a rare cheeky maneuver – intercepted a kick from France’s Thomas Ramos.
The adventure of the famous French began in September with a promising victory over the three-time world champions from New Zealand. Now it ends ahead of time, and Dupont’s colleague François Cros spoke for the entire team when he lamented the defeat: “It was the competition of my life. A World Cup in France, we will never experience that again.”
France’s top player quietly criticizes the referee’s performance
Dupont himself, however, also attributed the outcome to the game management. He didn’t want to sound bitter, he said, and he didn’t want to scold the referees: “But I don’t believe,” he said, “that the referees’ performance lived up to the highest level.” From his point of view, there were clear situations that the New Zealand impartial Ben O’Keeffe should have punished. At issue was a scene at the beginning of the game when France could have extended their lead instead of conceding the equalizer immediately afterwards.
It is clear that the World Cup semi-finals will be fought without the two statistically best European teams, France and Ireland. The northern hemisphere is now only represented by England, who now want to stop the defending champions South Africa on Saturday. New Zealand and Argentina will play the second finalist on Friday evening. For Antoine Dupont, after the facial fractures, there may be little consolation in the fact that he can now treat himself to healing rest – without collisions.