Toulouse (AFP)

Six Nations tournament, European Cup or Top 14: the scrum half Antoine Dupont wants to "win titles" in 2021 and does not establish a hierarchy between the XV of France and Toulouse, he explains in an interview to AFP.

At 24 years old and 27 selections, a frame in the French team, Dupont, named best player of the last Six Nations Tournament and admired for his crossings balloons in hand, sets the Blues as another goal for 2021 to "compete" with the nations of south, essential stage to claim a world title at home in 2023.

Question: What is your wish for 2021?

Answer: "Already, that we were able to move forward with this virus and that we can have people in the stadiums because we are starting to get tired of playing behind closed doors. And afterwards, winning titles, of course. C is what motivates us every day. "

Q: What if there was a title to choose from, between the Six Nations Tournament with the Blues, the European Cup and the Top 14 with Toulouse?

A: "Too hard to choose. The European Cup, we want it so much. The Brennus, we won it in 2019 but once we won it, we only have one desire, it's to win it back ... The Tournament, it's been ten years since there was a French victory in a competition, so there is a lot of envy on that side too. "

Q: Since your hatching in 2017, Stade Toulousain, like the XV of France, have been doing better, much better.

Do you measure all these two paths covered in four years?

A: "Of course. I arrived in two different contexts, but in Toulouse as in the French team, with a generation that was leaving and a younger generation that arrived and that needed to be guided by elders ... The periods transition are always complicated. The renewal in the France team, whether it is the staff or the players, has done a lot of good. We were able to start again on a healthy basis and without necessarily having the weight of the past. In Toulouse, we are all from the area, having arrived very young or even being trained at the club. This generation loves the club, they want to be part of its heritage. "

Q: If the selection is improving, it is also thanks to the installation of a new staff.

You immediately reaped the benefits ...

A: "Yes, of course, I had never known such a large staff. As many (coaches) as players almost! It is very thorough, like what other nations are doing now, which surround themselves with more and more specialists and skills. Of course, this is not everything but it brings a lot of keys to the players on the field. The staff's desire was also to give continuity to the workforce in view of the coming years and deadlines, in particular the World Cup, to arrive with experience, maturity. We know that experience, at the international level, cannot be bought: you have to live through matches, have selections to manage situations better and better. "

Q: A few days after the 2023 World Cup draw, are you already planning this event?

A: "We must quickly put things into perspective, by then there are three years left. If we look at the last world champions (South Africa in 2019), three years before the World Cup, nobody would have bet a euro on them (black year in 2016, including a defeat in Italy, Editor's note). There is still a long way to go until then, but it's also good for us because I'm not sure that we are necessarily ready to play such a competition from now on. We will have to play matches, win matches, win titles and quickly return to the first nations of the world. We have not + played + all the teams. "

Q: Now that you've beaten all the European nations, beating the Southern nations, is that the other goal for 2021?

A: "Of course. New Zealand is coming in November, we have a tour planned in Australia in July, it's important to be able to play them and be able to compete with them, which we don't 'haven't been able to do it for years. The last tours in New Zealand (2018), South Africa (2017) or even the one in Australia which goes back a bit (2014), there had not been a single match out of all three. There is always an added difficulty when playing these Southern nations, so we can't wait to meet them. "

Interview by Pierrick YVON

© 2020 AFP