By Louis Chapman-Coombe
Exeter Chiefs Director of Rugby Rob Baxter has said his side will need to take away the platform that lets Antoine Dupont become a threat, if they want to neutralise the French maestro this weekend.
The Chiefs recorded a famous last-16 win over Bath last weekend, but their route to the final gets harder from here, as they venture down to tournament favourites Toulouse, who have their main men back.
Fresh from lifting Sevens silverware for the first in French Sevens history, Dupont is back in the rouge et noir, and is back showing why he is one of the best players in the world.
Whilst Dupont is obviously a world class player, Chiefs boss Baxter believes he knows what his side need to do if they want to neutralise the threat he poses: “If you know that the opposition nine is a particular threat in the team, the focus you have isn’t necessarily on the nine, it’s the things that allow him to be a threat.
He added: “What allows him to be a threat is being able to get to breakdowns and have hot ball, it allows him to be able to pick and run and start to pick off options. That’s how you deal with it. Dealing with Dupont; it’ll be very hard to deal with him if we don’t deal with the things that give him his platform to go.”
This Toulouse team might be blessed with the best number nine in the world, but they also have a squad littered with other superstars. Romain Ntamack is back up and running again after a lengthy spell on the sidelines, Blair Kinghorn has quickly established himself as a key man in this Toulouse attack and Pita Akhi will be a handful for the Exeter defence.
It’s not just the back division that gets the mouth-watering in this Toulouse team; up-front they have the likes of Cyril Baille, Peato Mauvaka, Francois Cros, Jack Willis and Emmanuel Meafou making one of the most formidable packs in European rugby.
With all these world-class players in one team, it will inevitably create a buzz for this young Exeter group, but Baxter said he and his coaching staff need to bring them under control and focus on the task at hand.
“When you get to the last eight of Europe, as this is, you know you’re going to be playing against great sides,” he said. “That’s the truth, you’re going to be playing against good sides.”
He added: “They’ve got great players and there’s been a bit of excitement. We’ve had a good training week, and I think if anything we’ve actually got try and make sure they don’t get overly excited, because we are going to have to have a tactical awareness now on the day as well. There are things we need to do tactically, as well as show loads of energy and loads of excitement. We’ve got to get our balance excitement and energy and we’ve got to make sure we tactically line that up as well.”