VIDEO: Jake White's simple plan to stop Antoine Dupont
SPOTLIGHT: Bulls Director of Rugby Jake White believes pressure will be the key to limiting Antoine Dupont’s influence in their Champions Cup Round of 16 clash.
The Bulls are in France preparing to face five-time European champions Toulouse on Sunday and the visitors from Pretoria are overwhelming underdogs for the match.
Toulouse will have a host of French internationals in their side and one of those players is regarded by many as the best player in the world.
Scrumhalf Antoine Dupont has been in incredible form over the last couple of seasons and he played an integral role in helping France shoot up the world rankings.
He was crowned World Player of the Year in 2021 and this year he claimed his third Six Nations Player of the Tournament award.
If the Bulls are to cause a massive upset on Sunday they will need to come up with a plan to stop him.
“I’m sure there are ways and I am not going to divulge those ways,” said White.
“When I was coaching South Africa, the one game that comes to mind was against the Argentinian team with Agustin Pichot.
“He was as important to Argentinian rugby as Antoine Dupont is to the French team and Toulouse.
“The one thing that happens to any player is pressure.
“Pressure changes the actions of the players. It happens in all sports.
“You watch what pressure does to golfers and you watch what pressure does to teams in the backend of a competition.
“You look at the last 10 minutes of a game and what it does to decision-making and I think that is the key, we got to build pressure.
“We got to find ways in which the whole team collectively can put pressure on the opposition and I think that filters to the decision makers as it does to us.
“There is nothing unique about trying to understand how you build pressure.”
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One match the Bulls can draw confidence from is their United Rugby Championship semifinal against a star-studded Leinster outfit in Dublin last year.
The Bulls were overwhelming underdogs on that day, but they managed to shock the whole competition by recording a 27-26 win.
“Last year we played the whole Irish team. A lot of those players went on to win the Grand Slam and the Six Nations,” said White.
“We don’t have the list of international players that other teams around us have.
“There is no use trying to control things you can’t control. What we can control is the fact that we need to play well this weekend.
“It is a great opportunity to measure ourselves. We want to be in this competition for a long time.
“A team like Racing Metro have never won the Champions Cup. They’ve had some incredible teams that they put on the field in the last couple of years as well. So, there is no given that you need to win or have to win it.
“Some teams can play a long time and never come close to winning it.
“We are in the top 16 in our first year against a side like Toulouse, who has won it five times. They have some of the best players in the world.”
White added: “People say Dupont is the best player in the world and if he is not, then he must be close.
“With that sort of player as their general, France are favourites to win the World Cup.
“It’s a French team playing at home in the year of a World Cup where there is so much at stake for those players. They want to make sure they do well in big games so their national coaches pick them.
“You can’t get away from that but we can only control what we can control and that is to prepare as well as we can this week.”
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