(Reuters) – Stand-in captain Antoine Dupont doesn’t consider his new position will have an effect on his efficiency and is raring for his French aspect to benchmark their progress in opposition to New Zealand of their autumn worldwide conflict in Paris subsequent month.
Dupont, thought-about arguably one of the best scrumhalf on this planet, has been named captain with common skipper Charles Ollivon more likely to be out till subsequent 12 months with a knee harm.
France host Argentina on Nov. 6, after which Georgia and New Zealand on consecutive weekends after that, and Dupont believes the final of these clashes can be key with the 2 sides to additionally conflict on the Stade de France within the opening recreation of the 2023 Rugby World Cup.
“It’s all the time an vital and large recreation after we play New Zealand, and sadly the previous few matches in opposition to them weren’t good for France,” Dupont advised reporters on Tuesday.
“We’ll attempt to match them and, in fact, the attitude of the 2023 World Cup makes it much more thrilling for us. As with all video games, we goal to win.
“We’ve got had some good outcomes not too long ago, however we’re capable of do even higher. We’ll should be extra coherent. We’re capable of do good issues, we all know that, however generally we (let ourselves down), so the problem can be to remain constant all through the (autumn) collection.”
Dupont believes coach Fabien Galthie has France heading in the right direction after they completed second within the 2021 Six Nations and narrowly misplaced a collection in Australia.
“Fabian has introduced construction to our recreation and we’re additionally higher in our manner of functioning. And we have now not had all our gamers collectively at one time but,” he stated.
As for his position as captain, he doesn’t see it affecting his performances.
“I don’t suppose issues will change, I believe I’ll nonetheless be capable to concentrate on my recreation.”
(Reporting by Nick Mentioned; Enhancing by Christian Radnedge)
