France pick ‘icon’ Antoine Dupont at No 10 against Springboks

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France coach Fabien Galthie announced today that iconic captain Antoine Dupont would play at first five-eighths against South Africa in their Nations Championship match. Les Bleus…

France coach Fabien Galthie announced today that iconic captain Antoine Dupont would play at first five-eighths against South Africa in their Nations Championship match.

Les Bleus are missing their four first-choice No 10s in Romain Ntamack, Matthieu Jalibert, Antoine Hastoy and Thomas Ramos, who usually plays at fullback but is also a top-class first-five.

Dupont and Maxime Lucu had been widely expected to line up at 9 and 10.

Lucu had come on at first five-eighth outside Dupont against Fiji last week to replace Ntamack, who suffered a shoulder injury just past the half-hour mark.

“We took a lot of pleasure in tackling this challenge of designing something which could bring us greater stability and balance in our playmaking,” Galthie said of the surprise selection.

“These are two players with a lot of experience, they are two icons in France ... and in the world, who we wanted to align together to lead the team on Friday night.”

Both played at first five-eighths before, but Lucu has considerably more experience doing so for his club Bordeaux-Begles than Dupont does at Toulouse.

Galthie has opted to beef up his pack against the fearsome Springbok forwards on Saturday morning NZT at the Stade de France, with Julien Marchand picked in place of Maxime Lamothe at hooker.

Former captain Gregory Alldritt returns to the team for the first time in a year at No 8 with fellow back-rower Paul Boudehent injured.

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