"The talent was there" – England defence coach Joe El-Abd recalls coaching a young Antoine Dupont
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England defence coach Joe El-Abd is set for a reunion with Antoine Dupont this Saturday, as France arrive at the Allianz Stadium for the second round clash in the 2025 Guinness Men’s Six Nations. El-Abd first crossed paths with a teenage Dupont back in 2015, when the scrum half was breaking through with Castres Olimpique, and was already picked out for a bright future.
El-Abd shared the training pitches with Dupont until 2017, when the halfback began to garner the attention of the Top 14’s heavy hitters. The French maestro departed Castres in favour of a move to Toulouse ahead of the 2017/18 season, with his career only continuing on the upward trajectory that has landed him in the stratosphere as one of the world’s best.
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“I remember a lot. He was already a great lad who wanted to work all the time and wanted to get better at his game. We saw that the talent was there right away so he’s always had it, but aligned with the work that he puts in, it was always going to come to this moment. He moved across to Toulouse, settled in, and we’re seeing now from the sevens last year, that experience, he’s added that to his game and he’s always moving forward.”
“We knew where he was going to go. It was spoken about in the dressing room, even in France, that there was a player coming through that there was going to be something a bit different. We need to put him under as much pressure as possible so we don’t see those moments tomorrow.”
One of the most asked questions around the England training camp this week, has been how to stop Dupont before the Toulouse magician kicks into his formidable top gear. England assistant coach Richard Wigglesworth provided an insight from a scrum half perspective, with El-Abd addressing how he struggled to identify any immediate ‘weakness’ in Dupont’s game.
“No. I always remember him kicking with both feet, trying to kick with his left foot. And now, obviously, he’s got that in his locker as well. Is there a weakness? I’m not sure if we talk about weaknesses. It’s just about being ready at all moments and not switching off at any point. And if we can do that for 80 minutes, we’ll see what that gives us.”
England’s defence coach was certainly impressed by how France kept Wales scoreless, in the opening round of the Six Nations this past weekend. Fabien Galthie’s side handed Wales a brutal 43-0 shut out in the Stade de France, with El-Abd taken aback by the ‘complete’ Les Bleus wall which England intend to knock down this Saturday.
"It was pretty complete. They have got threats all over the pitch. It is something we need to contain but we need to be ready to be concentrating every single second of the game and if we can do that I am sure we will have a good game.”
"It is the big game for the French and for us, Le Crunch as they call it. We know the strengths they bring, they have been building over the last few years and have some continuity and we need to be concentrating for the whole 80 minutes.
“It means a hell of a lot, if you read in the press today, it is the big game. They have got France v Ireland, France v Wales etc but France v England is the biggest fixture on the Six Nations calendar. We know they are going to be ready but we have prepared likewise.”
Looking back on England’s own defensive performance in the first round of the tournament, and El-Abd is hopeful to see an improvement from the defeat in Ireland. There were an assortment of missed tackles in the Dublin match, with the likes of Bundee Aki, Jamison Gibson-Park and Dan Sheehan muscling through or skipping past England’s first up tackles on their way to the try line.
“More than a few times I’ve watched the game over! We definitely took a step forward. What we saw was the team ran hard for each other and really connected. There were moments in that first half when we were really proud of what we saw. In the second half, it was a little bit more difficult.
“We gave them lots of opportunities to get into our 22 and into our half. That’s something that we need to look. When you give teams of this standard that many opportunities, in the end, that tried us at pace We need to be a lot more pragmatic in that area, not giving them those opportunities and continue where we started off in that first half until the end of the game.”
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