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Why did Antoine Dupont wear number 25 in Vancouver?
By Willy Billiard
When Antoine Dupont walked onto the pitch at BC Place in Vancouver with the rest of the French team, the number 25 on his back was a real eye-catcher. The same thing happened when he came on against USA with just over three minutes remaining in the first match of the group stage.
Two explanations were given, and the first seemed logical. The world's best XV player, with 52 international caps to his name, simply inverted the two numbers to personalise his jersey, as the Sevens tradition allows.
However, the second explanation is the official one, as confirmed to RugbyPass by the staff of France 7.
A tribute to his family
Rupert Cox, commentator of the tournament on RugbyPassTV, had put forward a much more personal and profound explanation for the native of Lannemezan (Hautes-Pyrénées).
In fact, the "2" refers to the month in which his mother and brother were born (February), while the "5" refers to the month in which his father was born (May). With this number "25", Antoine Dupont wanted to pay a subtle but powerful tribute to his family.
And the tribute was more than perfect, thanks to France's two victories in the opening match of the HSBC SVNS Vancouver: 24-12 against USA and 40-7 against Samoa.
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Latest Comments
Firstly England were terrific for 82 minutes and deserve the plaudits.
Borthwick, though, must be the luckiest coach around .
Had a broken arm not occured Marcus would still be no 10 , had Russell put the kick over and France not dropped the ball , had Lawrence not been injured the scenario would be very different .
England beat the worst team in the northern hemisphere , let’s not get carried away .
The forwards scored 6 of the 10 tries and Mitchell’s was somewhat flukish .
The speed and power of play was the difference and the forwards were unrecognisable from previous games.
Had Marcus had such a ride in his games he too would have been praised for his play .
Ford came on against a poor and beaten team with the score 40 up . Easy peasy. Short memories fail to remember against Nz and Aus , top teams, he lost both games.
The changes were forced on Borthwick , not by natural selection and they have been all for the better.
Let's trust this is the start of bigger things and the excellent squad Borthwick has kick on . No pun intended.
Go to commentsI still think Englands 6 nations was a curates egg, both good and bad in parts, and it’s still far to early to declare that Borthwick and Co have now created a team to take on all comers.
This England sides win ratio against sides ranked above them is still pitifull.
The Autumn will tell us much more.
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