The captain of the XV of France and his people move on the lawn of England, in London, Saturday (5:45 p.m. on France 2 and france.tv).
The Blues between pressure and excitement in London. On the eve of the big meeting of this 4th day of the Tournament between England and France, at Twickenham, captain Antoine Dupont spoke at a press conference on Friday March 10 about the challenges of the meeting, the return of Jonathan Danty through the lack of success of the men of Fabien Galthié in London.
Playing a Crunch in a stadium like Twickenham, is it impressive?
Anthony Dupont: It’s always impressive, we have the chance to play in big stadiums with incredible stories. We know that every time we move it is very complicated. It’s complicated to win away in this Tournament, even more so here. But we are prepared to play these kind of matches, and these are the matches that we like to play.
It’s the only stadium in the Tournament where you haven’t won since the arrival of Fabien Galthié, is that on your mind?
Not especially. We had two games here, one in the Autumn Nations Cup with a reorganized team that we could very well have won. The other time, we failed at a few points and it was a matter of little. It’s going to be complicated, the English also have every interest in winning tomorrow, but we don’t necessarily think about past experiences.
Has the English team looked weaker in recent years? Is this the right year to come and win here?
I am not sure. Two years ago, many already predicted us favorites and we lost this match. When you look at the workforce, you see the experience and the qualities they have. Even if they are not at their best at the moment, we know very well that they are great players capable of bringing out their best rugby in great moments. And it’s going to be a great game for them, so we trust them to be at the level.
The defeat in Ireland has it made the stakes of this match even more important, six months before the World Cup?
You don’t need to contextualize like that. We are in our competition, in the Tournament. We know that we have to win tomorrow to claim final victory. We just focus on this objective, and the others will come later.
What can the return of Jonathan Danty change, what do you expect from him?
We expect him to play as he knows how to do, with his qualities, his power, his explosiveness. He did us a lot of good last year to take the midfield and dominate with his density. We expect him to play like he plays every weekend.