Antoine Dupont

Antoine Dupont born 15 November 1996 is a French professional rugby union player who plays as a scrumhalf for Top 14 club Toulouse and captains the France national team Dupont has won the World Rugby Mens 15s Player of the Year award in 2021 and three Six Nations Player of the Championships the most by a French player He has won nine major competitions in his career including four Top 14 titles two European Rugby Champions Cup the Grand Slam of the Six Nations Championship the 202324 SVNS and the Gold medal at the mens rugby sevens tournament in the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris Dupont was born in Lannemezan but grew up in the nearby village of CastelnauMagnoac where he started playing rugby for Magnoac FC at the age of 4 In 2011 he joined Auch as a junior In 2014 Dupont joined Castres in the Top 14 after the relegation of Auch in the 201314 Rugby Pro D2 season In November 2016 Stade Toulousain announced Duponts recruitment for the 201718 season In 2019 Dupont won the Top 14 with Toulouse after defeating Clermont Auvergne 2418 in the 201819 final In May 2021 Dupont won the European Rugby Champions Cup with Toulouse after defeating La Rochelle 2217 in the 20202021 final As captain he lifted the trophy after the final whistle In the same year Toulouse completed the domestic and European double winning the Top 14 for the 2nd time beating La Rochelle 188 in the final In 2016 Dupont was selected for the France U20 team for the 2016 World Rugby Under 20 Championship He was one of the stars of the tournament scoring 36 points which included 5 tries In November 2016 he was selected for the French Barbarian team which played and beat Australia Dupont was called up to the French first team for the first time ahead of Frances fourth 2017 Six Nations Championship match against Italy as a replacement for Maxime Machenaud He made his debut in that game coming on for Baptiste Serin in the 72nd minute of an eventual 4018 away win In 2020 Dupont was named Player of the Championship during following the 2020 Six Nations Championship In 2022 Dupont was named as Frances standin captain in the absence of Charles Ollivon Later that year France won the 2022 Six Nations Championship achieving the Grand Slam as a result This was Frances first Six Nations Championship win since 2010 Dupont was awarded Player of the Championship for the third time Though France did not win the 2023 Six Nations tournament Dupont claimed his third Player of the Championship trophy equalling Brian ODriscoll as the only player to win the award three times He is the third French captain after Fabien Pelous and Thierry Dusautoir to have beaten Australia New Zealand and South Africa He was selected to captain the 34man squad for France as they hosted the 2023 Rugby World Cup They would advance past the Pool stage however they exited the tournament in the quarterfinals after losing to eventual winners South Africa Source Article Antoine Dupont from Wikipedia in English licensed under CCBYSA 30