France were worthy Six Nations champions in 2025 but the awful knee injury suffered by their captain and scrum-half Antoine Dupont in Dublin in March cast a long shadow over the celebrations.
The French huffed and puffed during the Autumn internationals, seeing off Fiji and Australia but slumping to a 32-17 loss to South Africa, the benchmark of world rugby. One man doesn’t make a team but the spark that Dupont brings to any side was missing. It took eight months for his anterior cruciate ligaments to stitch together and strengthen to the point where he could take the field again.
His return off the bench for Toulouse at the end of November was welcomed warmly, especially as he showed flashes of his brilliance, but on Sunday he turned in a performance against La Rochelle that suggested the king really had returned. It was a 60-14 demolition but Dupont was outstanding, scoring two tries and lighting the fuse to the Toulouse fireworks with his quick passes and sharp breaks, and his all-round vision. “I’ve played worse matches than this one,” he explained with a smile. “I take a lot of risks and tonight it went more right than wrong.”
La Rochelle’s shell-shocked coach Ronan O’Gara was more blunt. “He’s a genius at scrum-half,” said the Irishman. It’s a view that was backed up by Dupont’s Toulouse and France teammate Cyril Baille. “Toto, when he’s like that, there’s nothing to say,” said the prop. “He’s the engine of the team. Playing with a guy like that is extraordinary.” For Dupont, it was less about genius and more about hard work and the single-minded desire to return to the very top of the game. “I put myself in the best conditions to come back,” he said of his rehabilitation.
“I’ve never worked so hard in my life or for so long. It wasn’t to return half-heartedly. “I feel like I did before (the injury). I have no discomfort. I found my rugby again quite quickly. “I had a few concerns at the start – it’s normal after an injury like that – but I got my skills back fairly quickly. I’ve got no excuses going forward. “If it keeps going like this, I hope my knee will leave me in peace.”
Sunday’s win means Toulouse, the current Top 14 champions, top the table at the halfway point in the regular season but there’s still a long way to go before the season ends in June. Dupont will be pivotal as France’s most successful club angle for a 25th Brennus Shield as well as a seventh Champions Cup. And then there’s the prospect of another French tilt at the Six Nations, starting against the Irish in Paris on February 5, before a shot at the 2027 World Cup. Dupont makes no apology for trying “to win everything”. “Fortunately – or unfortunately – I play on teams, whether France or Toulouse, that are capable of winning every competition they enter,” he said. “It’s going to be a pretty packed schedule.”