Six Nations 2025: How England plan to stop France's Antoine Dupont and cause upset at Allianz Stadium
England were beaten 27-22 by back-to-back champions Ireland in Dublin on Saturday; Steve Borthwick's side return to action against France, who saw Antoine Dupont help them thrash Wales 43-0 in their Six Nations opener
Tuesday 4 February 2025 10:01, UK
Tommy Freeman insists England are confident of containing France's scrum-half genius Antoine Dupont in Saturday's Guinness Six Nations showdown at the Allianz Stadium.
Dupont underlined his creative brilliance in Friday's demolition of Wales to provide more compelling evidence to those who argue that he is the sport's greatest player of all time.
England have been busy devising a strategy to prevent the Toulouse ringmaster from running the show in a must-win encounter and Freeman insists he is not invulnerable.
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"You can't underestimate how good a player he is, but he's human. He's like everyone else - you take his legs and he goes down," the Northampton wing said. "It's all about picking things up nice and early with him and putting him under pressure.
"I'm sure like any other player, when you put pressure on them they start to leak a few opportunities."
France set the Six Nations alight with their 43-0 Dupont-inspired drubbing of Wales and fears are growing that they are poised to inflict further misery on England.
A 27-22 defeat by Ireland on Saturday registered a record-equalling seventh successive defeat against top-tier opposition for Steve Borthwick's side, and one more loss would represent a new low in the nation's 154-year rugby history.
On current form the Twickenham showdown is a mismatch, but Freeman is adamant that England can pull off the upset.
"Of course we can. At the end of the day everyone is human, it's rugby," Freeman said. "They'll have a gameplan, we'll have a gameplan and we'll back ours to the moon and back. They'll do the same to theirs. We'll give ours as best a shot as we can.
"Obviously we wanted to come away with a result against Ireland. We felt like our first half was unbelievable. We came out firing and left it all out there. There was probably an element in the second half where we lapsed in concentration and a few things didn't go our way.
"We're disappointed with that, but the promise we've got in this squad means it's going to tick and it's going to change. Hopefully we'll get on the right side of the results."
Lozowski replaces injured Murley in England squad
Saracens centre Alex Lozowski has replaced injured winger Cadan Murley in England's squad ahead of Saturday's game with France.
Murley marked his international debut with a try against Ireland as England began their 2025 campaign with a 27-22 loss in Dublin, but the Harlequins winger suffered a foot injury.
Head coach Steve Borthwick's decision to supplement his options in midfield and full-back with Lozowski means Murley's place in the starting line-up will be filled by a member of England's original squad.
The leading contenders to start against France at Twickenham are Ollie Sleightholme, Tom Roebuck and Elliot Daly, all of whom missed out on the 23-player match-day squad in Dublin.
If selected, Lozowski would win his first England cap since 2018, having missed out on an appearance last autumn despite being included in training squads.
Murley is expected to have another scan on his foot in two weeks' time and could still return to action later in the tournament.
England have a week off after facing France and then play Scotland at Murrayfield on February 22. There is enough of a gap after that fixture before Borthwick's side complete their campaign with back-to-back fixtures against Italy and Wales.
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