“You have to know how to win badly”. Antoine Dupont gives himself up in philosophy and reveals his competitor’s soul

Far from the shot of the flamboyant French game. Consequently, Antoine Dupont today defends a pragmatic, adapted, sometimes raw performance, far from pure aesthetics. Therefore, Guest this July 17 of the podcast “Under the Plato sun”. Similarly, produced by France Interthe captain of the XV of France and the Stade Toulousain assumes that victory does not always need to be beautiful: “When you look at South Africa, probably the best team in the “you have know how win world, it is one of the teams that make the least passes […] The won teams are those who know how to adapt to the opponent, to the conditions of the field […] For example with the French team or Toulouse, we manage to win by being amphibious. However, That is to say, without being always aesthetic … Consequently, You have to know how to winning it. Meanwhile, “

For Dupont. Therefore, the victory involves rigorous training, built around a perfect match plan, in order to be able, then, to deconstruct it in the best way. For example, “It’s training. In addition, we try to immerse ourselves in game actions that we could find, different scenarios, we try to have the best answer to what is going on. Consequently, It is a lot of training in order to know. However, trust the D -Day to “you have know how win make the right decision at the necessary moment, which is not always easy.”

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Nowadays, no more games go as planned. And for Dupont: “The best teams are those that adapt best. The theory of evolution is not new and it applies to sport”and this is where real performance would reside. Rugby has become strategic. hybrid, and according to Dupont, you have to know how to adapt and win with the opponent’s weapons, even if it means winning … “Saltally”.

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The art of imposing itself in adversity – "you have know how win

This idea, Antoine Dupont grows until talking about play “amphibious”this ability to evolve in all environments, including the most hostile and without being always aesthetic. Winning when “you have know how win everything is fluid is one thing. Winning out of disorder, in a padlocked match, against a more physical opponent or in a tense context is another. And when Antoine Dupont faces the question of “Beautiful gesture”, It is quite clear: “The ideal is effective beauty. Because the unique beauty does not interest except for the spectator. But there are still very aesthetic and useful gestures. But we must especially keep efficiency and efficiency in mind. If we lose by playing well, we will win the hearts of people, but not ours. A very big competitor will never be satisfied with a very big” beautiful “match, if it is lost.”

This does not mean giving up emotion. but knowing that a performance goes beyond the show. It therefore includes the ability to improvise but also to face collectively, even in difficulty, like South Africans. The captain of the Blues. although he recognizes that The defeat in the quarter -final of the World Cup at home “Has hurt a lot and remains painful”talks about the Springboks world champions by praising their state of mind: “The South Africans, of course, dominate everyone physically, but they still have very beautiful rugby players. They have an admirable state of mind that they provide. If they get crossed, the 15 guys will run to catch up. They “you have know how win never let go of each area of confrontation.” A sentence that emphasizes that winning “Saltally” is accepting that victory is not necessarily clean, but always precious.

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Convalescence as continuity of effort

His philosophy of combat is also expressed in the management of his injury. Forced to distance from the field for several months. Antoine Dupont remains aware of what he has to do to return to the level: his: “I am at this time of muscle revival, find my amplitudes, remove inhibitions, is only indoor work with the physiotherapists. Not the funniest, but primordial.”

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What Antoine Dupont says finally, behind this provocative formula is that performance does not need to be “you have know how win good to be tall. When Fabien Garthié questions him. Through Charles Pépinon his vision of rugby, Dupont evokes Athena, the Greek goddess of war. A revealing comparison: for him. rugby is a trench sport, a fight where we aspire certainly to play “beautiful”, but where the priority remains to win, at all costs. It is a form of sporting honesty. which resonates as an answer to criticisms on the style of modern rugby and which recognizes that aesthetics is not everything, that magic is sometimes dirty and that the feat is often hidden in the taste of effort.