Dupont back to skipper France against Japan

Olympic gold medallist Antoine Dupont will make his return to the France 15s team as captain for Sunday's Test against Japan after sitting out the last 13 months of international duty.

Dupont's last match in 15s came in the morale-denting Rugby World Cup quarter-final defeat by South Africa a little over a year ago. In the 13 months since that loss on home soil, the 27-year-old scrum-half has helped the France 7s team to an Olympic gold medal as well as claiming a French Top 14 and Champions Cup double with club Toulouse.

Dupont will partner with Toulouse teammate Thomas Ramos at half-back, the latter was preferred over Matthieu Jalibert to start at fly-half.

Ramos, who normally plays full-back for his club, replaced Jalibert in the number 10 shirt for matches against England and Wales last year.

France will face Japan at 8.10am Sunday.

In other test matches, the All Blacks will take on Ireland at 8.10am tomorrow, the Wallabies will face England at 3.10am Sunday, the Fiji Water Flying Fijians will meet Wales at 1.40am Monday and Scotland will play South Africa at 4.10am Monday.

[Source: Rugby.com.au]