{"id":188936,"date":"2025-10-09T20:56:11","date_gmt":"2025-10-09T20:56:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/188936\/"},"modified":"2025-10-09T20:56:11","modified_gmt":"2025-10-09T20:56:11","slug":"why-are-a-section-of-the-french-rugby-public-engaging-in-dupont-bashing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/188936\/","title":{"rendered":"Why are a section of the French rugby public engaging in ‘Dupont bashing’?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A new phrase has recently entered the lexicon of French rugby: \u2018Dupont bashing\u2019. It was first deployed by Ugo Mola<\/a>, the head coach at Toulouse, when asked last month about the rehabilitation of Antoine Dupont. The scrum-half ruptured his cruciate ligaments playing for France<\/a> against Ireland<\/a> in March and hopes to return before the end of the year.<\/p>\n

According to a report in Monday\u2019s Midi Olympique, the 28-year-old has his sights set on Toulouse\u2019s trip to play Montauban on November 22 for his comeback match.<\/p>\n

In the meantime Dupont has been working hard to rebuild his knee, which has included visiting a renowned clinic in Qatar<\/a> to undergo some intense strength and conditioning. But there\u2019s only so much rehab a man (and a knee) can take. Everyone needs some downtime, a spot of R&R, to unwind.<\/p>\n

Dupont was seen out and about during the summer, often in the company of Iris Mittenaere, a TV personality and former winner of Miss Universe. Television cameras picked them out watching the tennis at Roland Garros and strolling down the red carpet at the Cannes film festival. The pair were also pictured in the pages of celebrity magazines, enjoying the sun in Spain, Italy, and LA.<\/p>\n

\"AntoineDupont has been criticised in certain quarters for attending high-profile sporting events like the French Open while recuperating (Photo by Jean Catuffe\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

For a minority, the spiteful and resentful, this was a sure sign that Dupont had lost his focus and was now more celebrity than scrum-half. Negative comments appeared on social media, which prompted Mola to come to the defence of Dupont. \u201cOn days when he\u2019s not on social media, he may be training and we\u2019re not filming him,\u201d said Mola. \u201cWe shouldn\u2019t interpret things that seem commonplace and fall into the trap of \u2018Dupont bashing\u2019 that we\u2019re seeing at the moment.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mola considered Dupont \u201clucky\u201d to have the chance to lap it up in Cannes or enjoy a spot of tennis in Paris. The life of a top-class rugby player in France leaves little opportunity to kick back, other than a few weeks in July. \u201cWe have a system in place whereby as soon as a player is injured for more than six to eight weeks, part of his rehabilitation or re-athletization does not take place at the club\u2026players can seek expertise elsewhere but also allow themselves to have a kind of freshness.\u201d<\/p>\n

As any professional athlete knows, the misery of serious injury isn\u2019t just physical, it\u2019s also emotional. Suddenly you\u2019re raison d\u2019\u00eatre is gone. Like a writer not being able to write for nine months or a builder not being able to build.<\/p>\n

As any professional athlete knows, the misery of serious injury isn\u2019t just physical, it\u2019s also emotional. Suddenly you\u2019re raison d\u2019\u00eatre is gone. Like a writer not being able to write for nine months or a builder not being able to build. When Dan Cole<\/a> suffered a serious neck injury in 2014, the Leicester<\/a> and England<\/a> prop described his ten months in rehab as \u201cmassively boring\u201d. He continued: \u201cYour daily routine is gone so you\u2019ve basically got nothing to get up for in the morning\u2026I wasn\u2019t doing weights and you can\u2019t really do any rehab on your neck at that point, because the medics don\u2019t want you to activate your neck muscles, so it was boring \u2013 massively boring.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fine prop that Cole was, he was never a rugby superstar so the offers of some \u00a0best seats in the house at tennis tournaments and film festivals probably didn\u2019t come flooding in. Dupont, however, arguably rugby\u2019s greatest talent, is a household name in France and event organisers know that having him on their invite list is good for their image.<\/p>\n

\"AntoineAntoine Dupont<\/a> has been out since early March and is expected back at the end of Novembe(Photo Charles McQuillan\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

What\u2019s wrong with accepting the odd freebie? Nothing, says Max\u00a0Guazzini, the man credited with giving French rugby a showbiz makeover two decades ago. Guazzini glamourised Stade Francais<\/a> when he was president, introducing the pink playing shirts and the cheerleaders, and attracting a new audience that culminated in a crowd of nearly 80,000 to watch Stade Francais play Toulouse<\/a> at the Stade de France in 2005.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople who criticize Antoine Dupont because he appears in magazines or on social media are imbeciles,\u201d said Guazzini in a recent interview. \u201cThe whole rugby world should be happy to have Antoine Dupont. He\u2019s pleasant and he\u2019s charismatic.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018Dupont-bashing\u2019 is a French phenomenon, and evidence that it\u2019s not just in the Anglophone world where sullen people like to cut down tall poppies.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s right. It is idiotic to criticise Dupont, a player who has given so much to his club and his country in the last decade. Rugby has very genuine superstars, players who would be recognised if they strolled along the streets of Paris, London or Sydney. The ones it has should be cherished because they will help grow the game in an increasingly competitive sports market.<\/p>\n

\u2018Dupont-bashing\u2019 is a French phenomenon, and evidence that it\u2019s not just in the Anglophone world where sullen people like to cut down tall poppies. In Britain they love him, to the point where a recent photo of Dupont training in an LA gym under a giant Red Bull logo caused considerable excitement.<\/p>\n

\"AntoineDupont is expected back in Toulouse colours for the Champions Cup and will stay in the Pink City unless a club like Newcastle<\/a> Red Bulls<\/a> can entice him to the Gallagher PREM (Photo Sam Barnes\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Even the normally sober Times<\/a> wondered if this wasn\u2019t a sign from the Gods that before long Dupont would be joining Newcastle Red Bulls. We can all dream.<\/p>\n

When I interviewed Dupont in 2019 I asked if he might be tempted to one day play in England? He grinned. \u201cIf global warming continues, why not?\u201d<\/p>\n

It may be a while yet before the Newcastle climate rivals that of Toulouse\u2019s but what will hopefully soon warm is France\u2019s relationship with Antoine Dupont.<\/p>\n

You will miss him when he\u2019s gone so make the most of the little genius while he\u2019s here.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A new phrase has recently entered the lexicon of French rugby: \u2018Dupont bashing\u2019. It was first deployed by…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":188937,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-188936","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-rugby","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/188936","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=188936"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/188936\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/188937"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=188936"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=188936"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=188936"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}