Champions Cup: Stopping Antoine Dupont key to Harlequins upsetting odds in Toulouse
Harlequins face one of the world’s best club teams — and in their home city to boot — in this afternoon’s Champions Cup semi-final clash against Toulouse.
Standard Sport’s rugby correspondent Nick Purewal looks at how Quins can upset the odds again.
Contain Antoine Dupont
France scrum-half Dupont is not just the world’s outstanding player, he will go down as one of the best of all time. Quins must find a way to stop him raiding around the fringes, as well as cover him surging onto offloads. If Dupont has the space to operate as almost an extra fly-half, Quins will be in trouble.
Force Toulouse into breakdowns
Ugo Mola’s fluent Toulouse side want to keep the ball alive by popping out of tackles to runners arriving from deep at pace. Quins must shut this down and squeeze Toulouse into rucks and mauls to stifle their creativity and rhythm.
Lock out the set-pieces
A key feature of Quins’ stunning 42-41 quarter-final win in Bordeaux was their flawless scrums and lineouts. Will Collier needs to be rock solid at tight-head again, while Quins must be highly accurate from throw to jumping rhythm in the lineout.
Convert chances
Quins will almost always create opportunities, but they must convert almost every opportunity on Sunday, because Toulouse will doubtless convert a hatful of chances of their own. The old adage of leave the opponent’s 22 with points has never been more apt.
