Leinster must stop ‘freak’ Dupont to stand chance of winning Investec Champions Cup final - Brian O'Driscoll

Brian O’Driscoll highlighted the threat posed by Antoine Dupont for Toulouse in the Investec Champions Cup final against Leinster on Saturday – live on TNT Sports and discovery+.

The two most successful sides in the history of Europe’s premier rugby cup competition meet at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, and O’Driscoll revealed the best approach to thwart the scrum-half.

“I think you've got to defend in numbers together [v Dupont], defend in units,” he told TNT Sports.

“You don't want any lone wolves, guys going out and trying to problem-solve on their own. I think you've got to go and make sure that you shut his space down, take his options away and then you make your one-on-one tackles.

“He's not a huge man, but my God he’s so strong, so evasive and so powerful in the collision. He's a very, very hard player to defend because he's got so much rugby intellect, with physical prowess as well.

“It's a wicked combination that he has. You’ve got to have one of your best defensive games against them to make sure that you keep him out.”

The former British & Irish Lions captain has been hugely impressed by the way in which Dupont can seamlessly adapt to playing sevens rugby and has the prospect of completing a personal Olympics and Champions Cup double.

“It’s amazing that he's only gone and played a couple of tournaments and been happy enough with it," he explained.

“I've covered the Sevens Series an awful lot over the last eight or nine years, and seen players come and go from 15s to sevens because they just haven't had the ability to really get up to the speed of the game.

“Whereas, if you watched him, he genuinely looked like a freak that had been at it for a long time. His fitness levels, his passing and defensive game means he’s able to see everything so clearly.”

O’Driscoll looked in more detail at how the game will be won and lost, reviewing the differing tactical styles of both teams.

“It will all come down to the big moments in the delivery of those big-name X-Factor players," he said. "Can the likes of Dupont and [Theo] Ntamack be shut down?

“And can Leinster harass them, close their space and not give them the opportunities on the ball with their blitz defence?

“Every good player wants to have options, along with the time and space to pick them.

“That'll be a kind of a modus of Leinster to make sure that they close down their decision-making time. And then put some of their own X-Factor players to effect, with the likes of Hugo Keenan and Jamison Gibson-Park creating space for different players.

“The styles are different in that Toulouse can play any type of game. They can play bludgeon up front, they can play an offloading game. They can also throw it to their very exciting outside backs or dominate it in a kicking game with their half-backs.

“Whereas Leinster probably try and move the bigger teams around a little bit more. They don’t want to get into an arm wrestle, albeit they're probably a bit more physically imposing this year.

“There's been a real focus via their defence, but it's kind of had a positive knock-on effect to the rest of their game. It definitely feels as though they will look at trying to move that bigger pack around, relying on their fitness and their multi-phase game to bring them through 10 or 15 phases, get mismatches and take those opportunities.

“But it feels like there's not a whole lot between these two teams in terms of quality.”

The final will take place on Saturday, May 25 at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium at 14:45 UK time.

You can watch the match live on TNT Sports and discovery+, with coverage beginning from 13:30.

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