France pick 'icon' Dupont at fly-half against South Africa

Detailed summary

France coach Fabien Galthie announced on Wednesday that iconic captain Antoine Dupont would play at fly-half against South Africa in their Nations Championship match. Les Bleus…

France coach Fabien Galthie announced on Wednesday that iconic captain Antoine Dupont would play at fly-half against South Africa in their Nations Championship match.

Les Bleus are missing their four first-choice number 10s in Romain Ntamack, Matthieu Jalibert, Antoine Hastoy and Thomas Ramos, who usually plays at full-back but is also a top-class fly-half.

Dupont and Maxime Lucu had been widely expected to line up in the half-back positions, but with the captain retaining his usual scrum-half spot.

Lucu had come on at fly-half 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," said Galthie 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 scrum-halves have played at fly-half 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 Friday night at the Stade de France, with Julien Marchand picked in place of Maxime Lamothe at hooker.

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

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