Dupont sets eyes on Top 14 title before Olympic 'objective' / Photo: Christophe ARCHAMBAULT - AFP/File
Dupont sets eyes on Top 14 title before Olympic 'objective'
Toulouse superstar Antoine Dupont heads into Friday's French Top 14 final with Bordeaux-Begles knowing it could kickstart a glittering summer that the scrum-half will hope has a golden lining.
Dupont will lead the French club's charge to a record 23rd league title and a domestic and Champions Cup double almost a month to the day before a possible gold medal decider at the men's rugby sevens event of the Paris Olympics.
The 27-year-old former World Rugby player of the year started off the season with defeat in the World Cup quarter-final at the Stade de France.
Since that agonising loss, Dupont has successfully turned his hand to the shorter code of the game.
He was named World Rugby sevens rookie of the year after lifting the Los Angeles and Madrid legs of the series, while also managing to help Toulouse to a sixth Champions Cup crown in the 15-man code.
"Paris welcoming the Olympic Games was a big motor for the challenge," Dupont told this month’s Tetu magazine.
"But it's also come at a time in my career when I needed something new, to get out of my comfort zone, to put myself in danger.
"Discovering a new environment, new team-mates, a new system, has done me a lot of good and I think I’m blossoming in rugby," he added.
Whatever the result at Marseille's Stade Velodrome, with the Stade de France out of use due to Olympic preparations, Dupont will have circled July 8 in his calendar and the France's sevens squad announcement.
"Physically, it's going to be tough until July," Dupont said.
"But I have an objective in my sight and I'll rest afterwards."
Between Dupont and a second double in three years are Bordeaux-Begles, appearing in their maiden final.
The team with the best average home club crowd in world rugby were created in 2006 as Stade Bordelais and Club Athletique Begles Bordeaux merged.
They were promoted to the Top 14 five years later and have lost at the last-four stage in the past three seasons.
"For a long time we were crying, now we're smiling and heading to Marseille," club captain Maxime Lucu said.
"There was a lot of frustration, sadness, bad times with the club, people saying Bordeaux-Begles would never get further than the semis.
"We heard a lot but we kept believing," added Lucu, Dupont's understudy in the France squad.
- Prop problems -
Both sides have suffered injury blows before the decider in front of a 67,000-sell-out crowd on the Mediterranean coast.
Toulouse's loose-head prop Cyril Baille is out with an ankle issue and Bordeaux-Begles' tight-head Ben Tameifuna has a shoulder problem.
"I think we've used 14 front-rowers this season," Toulouse coach Ugo Mola said.
"We'll have a great number one, a great number three, a great number 17 and a great number 23," he added.
One boost for Lucu's side in their hunt for a maiden Bouclier de Brennus title, which dates back to 1892, against the aristocrats of French rugby is their talented backline.
Bordeaux-Begles' back-three of Louis Bielle-Biarrey, Damian Penaud and Romain Buros have scored 39 tries this season, more than double Toulouse's all-international trio of Blair Kinghorn, Juan Cruz Mallia and Thomas Ramos, on 16.
"We're looking ahead to Friday, they're a big fish," Lucu said.
"Toulouse are used to finals, to titles, we're not.
"We will prepare to go there and do something great," the 31-year-old added.
Fixture
Toulouse v Bordeaux-Begles (1905GMT)
M.Stevenson--EWJ
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