Nick Mallett believes Antoine Dupont may be better suited to flyhalf than Maxime Lucu and that the two could interchange during Friday night’s Test against the Springboks.
France’s injury woes had appeared to pave the way for scrumhalf Lucu to wear the No 10 jersey in the Nations Championship clash in Paris, with Romain Ntamack, Matthieu Jalibert, Antoine Hastoy and Thomas Ramos all injured.
But coach Fabien Galthié has handed the playmaking duties to scrumhalf Dupont instead, pairing him with Lucu at nine.
The switch will see Dupont make his first Test start at flyhalf in his 66th appearance for Les Bleus.
Speaking on the Talking Boks podcast, Mallett backed the selection.
“He is an absolutely sensational rugby player.
“You get players who can play in more than one position. I’ll use Sacha [Feinberg-Mngomezulu] and Damian Willemse as examples. They can play centre, fullback and flyhalf. And I think Dupont’s the same.
“Just remember what he did as a sevens player. He was able to dominate that sevens series and get an Olympic gold medal.
“So he’s a very good defender. He’s incredibly strong around the hips.”
TEAM: Les Bleus back Dupont at 10 for Bok battle
The former Bok coach believes Dupont’s physicality could prove vital against the powerful Bok ball-carriers.
“From a defensive point of view, I think that probably the 10kg more that Dupont has [than Lucu] will help against the Springbok attack.
“If you had Lucu in that flyhalf channel and our forwards were coming around the corner and our centres were taking it up, he’d have a long afternoon.
“Now, I’m sure we’re going to do the same with Dupont, but he’s a very, very sturdy guy and I don’t think he’s going to have problems defensively.”
RASSIE: Les Bleus don’t know what Dupont will do
Mallett also expects the French halfbacks to offer plenty of attacking variety.
“You’ve got a very intelligent tactical kicker, a very accurate goal-kicker in Lucu, and you’ve also got a very good kicking game from Dupont at 10, as well as a lot of intelligence on attack.
“So nine and 10 can both kick, they can both defend. Dupont probably better in the flyhalf channel, as I mentioned.
“I haven’t seen him play a lot at 10, so I’m not sure of his distribution but he’s got a very talented backline outside him, and I can’t see him kicking the ball away all day.
“So I think they’re definitely going to hold on to the ball.”
BIG TREV: Dupont can do whatever he wants
Mallett suggested Dupont and Lucu could regularly swap roles against the Boks.
“France often switch nine and 10 if they go into the wide channels. So they win a lineout and they decide to play in the wide channels, and it goes into the far 15, then Dupont, having played 10, will move into nine and Lucu from nine will just move into 10.
“So they’ll alternate that way. The two of them will just move across the field.”
POLL: Which 10 comes out on top?
However, Mallett pointed out that the halfbacks won’t be the deciding factor on Friday.
“Games are won by the forwards, and it’s the pack of forwards that’s going to have to stand up against the Boks, not nine and 10.”
Photo: Warren Little/Getty Images
The post Mallett: Dupont will pull his weight at 10 appeared first on SA Rugby magazine.
Nick Mallett believes Antoine Dupont may be better suited to flyhalf than Maxime Lucu and that the two could interchange during Friday night’s Test against the Springboks.
The post Mallett: Dupont will pull his weight at 10 appeared first on SA Rugby magazine. Read More
