PARIS: Superstar scrum-half Antoine Dupont was omnipresent once again as his club Toulouse claimed a third Top 14 and Champions Cup double on Friday but his mind now switches to this summer’s home Olympic Games.
French rugby’s poster boy Dupont was unplayable at times as the aristocrats of French rugby cruised past Bordeaux-Begles 59-3 in Marseille to add to May’s Champions Cup success.
The 27-year-old scored two tries and set up another less than a month from the 2024 Games’ men’s sevens final at the Stade de France.
A victory in Paris would be historic for Les Bleus, beating the women’s silver medal in Tokyo three years ago.
“I have one week of holidays before I join up with the Olympics squad,” Dupont told France Televisions after the victory.
“I will enjoy this, rest up to get there with a fresh mind and to be motivated to start again to win something else,” the 2021 World Rugby player of the year added.
Dupont’s ability seemed to have peaked in early 2022.
He had claimed Toulouse’s second ever double and lifted France’s first Six Nations in more than a decade.
They came a few months after he was named World Rugby player of the year.
This season, Dupont’s 15-a-side campaign started with a heartbreaking Rugby World Cup quarter-final defeat to eventual winners South Africa.
He has managed to put that to one side and in February he turned his hand to the shorter form of the game and was like a duck to water on his sevens debut in Canada.

A week later he helped Les Bleus to their first leg success since 2005 as they won in Los Angeles.
The former Castres half-back ended the campaign with another win, in Madrid.
The rookie of the year award followed having featured in just three of the season’s eight legs.
His two tries in the Top 14 final took him to 11 club touchdowns for the season, equalling his 2021 personal best.
“I think I’ve achieved much more than I could have dreamt of as a child,” Dupont told Canal+ after the Bordeaux-Begles’ rout.
“I have to realize it but not too much as to be able to keep dreaming,” he added.
Dupont has become a symbol of the increasingly healthy state of French rugby, with the national team and its clubs blossoming.
Since the sport became professional in 1995, it has been plagued with in-fighting between the French Rugby Federation (FFR) and influential clubs, such as Dupont’s Toulouse.
But his Olympic wish originating back in spring of 2022, was the fruit of the work done by FFR chiefs and Toulouse.
Dupont sat out this year’s Six Nations and was rested by his club for parts of the season, prioritising his seven-a-side obligations.
“What was amazing with what Antoine has done is that we called upon him in a sporadic way throughout the season and every time he’s been with us he was the player he’s capable of being in the big moments,” Toulouse head coach Ugo Mola told reporters after the final.
“I remain convinced that very few players can change their sport, I think in the few years to come he can revolutionize the sport.
“He might be able to have a go at rugby league too?” Mola jokingly added.

NEW DELHI: Cricket fans across India were praying, fasting and holding fire rituals for their team to end a global title drought in the T20 World Cup final Saturday.
Rohit Sharma’s India face South Africa in a blockbuster climax in Barbados with both teams unbeaten in the ninth edition of the tournament.
India last tasted success in a world-level tournament in the 2013 Champions Trophy and have since faltered in the knockout stages of ICC events, despite being ranked number one in both T20s and one-day internationals, and number two in Tests.
Rohit and team came agonizingly close to winning the ODI World Cup at home last year, but lost to Australia in the final at the world’s biggest cricket stadium in Ahmedabad.
News channels repeatedly showed images Saturday of fans holding Hindu fire rituals to urge the gods to take the team to victory over South Africa, who will be playing their first-ever World Cup men’s final.
Some featured pictures bedecked with flower garlands of captain Rohit, who has hit three half-centuries in the tournament, holding the World Cup trophy.
India knocked out defending champions England in the semifinal in Guyana and a triumph would be a fitting finale for outgoing coach Rahul Dravid.
“With a quiet prayer on my lips, I hope the team wins it for Rahul Dravid,” Saad Majeed, an ardent fan wearing an Indian jersey, told AFP.
“Rohit is in top form and I am sure a final flourish from him would drive the team home to a memorable win, which will help us forget the previous heartaches.”
Sumit Dagar, another fan, said in Delhi: “I will be fasting since morning and will eat only when India will win against South Africa today. There is no chance they will lose.”
Former India captain Sourav Ganguly told reporters on Friday: “I am very happy for Rohit Sharma.
“Life comes a full circle. Six months ago he was not even the captain of Mumbai Indians and the same man is now leading India to a World Cup final, unbeaten,” he said, referencing an Indian Premier League team.
Star batsman Virat Kohli partnered Rohit at the top of the order but has failed to fire, scoring just 75 runs in seven matches.
But Ganguly, a former president of the Board of Control for Cricket in India, backed the struggling star to come good in the final.
“He is a once in a lifetime player,” said Ganguly. “He is human, he will have three or four bad games, but I have got my fingers crossed for him in the final.”
The tournament could be the last World Cup for both openers, with Kohli aged 35, Rohit two years older, and the next edition of T20’s showpiece only in 2026.
Rohit was part of India’s T20 World Cup triumph in the inaugural edition in 2007, while Kohli won the ODI prize under M.S. Dhoni in 2011.
That was India’s last World Cup triumph, when Dhoni lifted the trophy at Mumbai’s Wankhede Stadium and the country erupted in joy.
Two years later, Dhoni’s team beat hosts England in the 50-over Champions Trophy final but fans have now been waiting for 13 years for another major title.
India lost in the semifinals of the 2019 ODI World Cup and the 2022 T20 World Cup, before last year’s ODI final defeat again left fans heartbroken.