The captain of the XV of France returned to the reasons for the rediscovered dynamics of the XV of France which receives Wales on Saturday for the last day of the Six Nations Tournament.
Eyes on victory, and why not the trophy. Before the last match of the Six Nations Tournament against Wales on Saturday (3:45 p.m.), the captain of the XV of France Antoine Dupont returned to the press, Friday March 17, on the race for the title and the state of mind of the blue group. He also addressed the specificity of the meeting, six months before the World Cup.
The games against Wales have often been close in recent years, do you expect another confrontation of this type?
Anthony Dupont: Yes, we mentioned it in the week by showing the results of the last seasons, which also show the state of mind of Wales for a good decade. They have good results, and even when they lose, it’s down to a few points, they’re still in the game until the last action. We will try to have a larger gap.
This will be the last competitive game before the World Cup. Do you feel the pressure mounting?
We feel it from the first international matches. We see it with the 2023 Six Nations Tournament, everyone thinks of the World Cup. But it was important to concentrate on this competition, to prepare without looking too far ahead. That’s what we continued to do this week, before planning for the next goals.
There is the goal of victory on Saturday, and that of the final victory, which is also spinning in the corner of your head?
Of course, counting we can always win the Tournament, even if our destiny is not in our hands. We are going to play the match to win it, we want to score as many points as possible and hope for a final victory. We will focus on ourselves and play the best game possible.
Fabien Galthié spoke, after the defeat in Ireland, of the need to recreate emulation in the group, is that something you felt?
We sat down, we talked with the staff and the leaders, we talked about the fact that we had fallen into a certain routine. This is our fourth tournament, we had taken a lot of habits in our life as a group, and sometimes we did things to do them without real conviction. We tried to find joy in life and emulation in the weeks that followed with two victories that gave us a lot of air.
You are coming out of a historic victory against England, is there a risk of getting carried away and overplaying against the Welsh?
It is a risk, we have also mentioned it. I dare to hope that now the group is now quite experienced. We had ups and downs, we know that at this level we can’t relax, otherwise we fall back into our ways with lost matches, or which are played out on details until the last action. I hope we will be stronger on this point.