France captain Antoine Dupont was named the Top 14 player of the season on Monday, November 20, for a second time in his career. Dupont, 27, collected the award after also doing so in 2021 having helped his club Toulouse to a record-extending 22nd French league title.
The scrum-half pipped France team-mate and La Rochelle No. 8 Greg Alldritt as well as Bayonne's former France fly-half Camille Lopez to the award during a glamorous ceremony in Paris. Dupont has played two Toulouse games since hosts France were knocked out of the Rugby World Cup by eventual winners South Africa.
Last week, it was announced that Dupont would miss next year's Six Nations to focus on preparing to play seven-a-side rugby the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris. On Monday, he said he will have to make "sacrifices" if he is to feature for his country at next year's Olympic Games in Paris.
The 27-year-old is set to join France's sevens squad in January before World Rugby sevens circuit events in Vancouver on February 23-24 and Los Angeles on March 2-3. "It's been a while that discussions have been underway for me to be made available for this team," Dupont told Canal+ after being named the Top 14's player of the season.
"We'll have to adjust things, I won't be able to play all the matches every weekend until the end of the season. "Competing for an Olympic medal is really motivating. "Sacrifices will have to be made to be able to spend time with the team," he added.
In the other categories, Dupont's Toulouse boss Ugo Mola won the prize for the coach of the season and Pau's 20-year-old center Emilien Gailleton claimed the breakthrough player of the award prize. He finished the season as the Top 14's leading scored and was part of France's training squad for the World Cup.