Tuesday, June 18: Reform UK launch their manifesto ahead of the general election, with leader Nigel Farage promising massive tax cuts and spending commitments. In other news, the National Rally have laid out their plans ahead of the French legislative elections. Also, French rugby superstar Antoine Dupont takes a stance against homophobia. Finally, France win their Euro 2024 opener against Austria … but captain Kylian Mbappé suffers a broken nose.
The talismanic 27-year-old is widely held to be one of the greatest rugby union stars currently playing and certainly, deeply influential when it comes to the fortunes of the French national side.
“We’ll have to adjust things. I won’t be able to play all the matches every weekend until the end of the season. Sacrifices will have to be made to be able to spend time with the team.”
“Antoine’s idea of playing in the Olympics has been in the line for two years,” Galthié said, confirming that the departure was planned.
So how does one of the most celebrated scrum halves in the world transition to the fast-paced, high-intensity world of rugby sevens?
That, Dupont is discovering with each passing day.
At a recent sevens camp in January, the former World Rugby World Player of the Year was put through his paces and was reportedly not spared from the burpee rituals typically inflicted on new members of the squad.
The feeling so far from coach Jerome Daret about Dupont’s progress has been largely positive:
“He’s a player who is laying himself bare. He’s getting out of his comfort zone and he’s keen to fight,” Daret told the AFP.
“Antoine has all the skills to be able to exist in this game, in terms of speed, but we need to gradually get him to be able to handle this load.”
He is also expected to be in Madrid at the end of May to have three legs under his belt before the Games.
