Trying to stop Dupont 'a dangerous game' - Jackman

It would be a fool's errand for Leinster to think they can "stop" Toulouse scrum-half Antoine Dupont this week.

But Ian Keatley and Bernard Jackman think Leo Cullen's side can limit the French star's influence in Saturday's Heineken Champions Cup semi-final (live on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player) by targeting those around him.

Dupont has scored two tries and provided an incredible 11 assists in six games, continuing the form that saw him named Six Nations Player of the Championship earlier this year.

If Toulouse are to upset Leinster in Dublin on Saturday, their win is almost certain to be covered in Dupont's fingerprints.

The 26-year-old has cemented his place as one of the very best, if not the best scrum-half of all-time, and how Leinster deal with him will go a long way towards deciding the outcome.

However, former Ireland out-half Keatley says rather than trying to take on Dupont directly, the four-time champions need to make life difficult for those around him at the Aviva Stadium.

"I don't think you can 'stop' Dupont," he told the RTÉ Rugby podcast.

"You need to take away their quick forward ball, you need to stop offloads, slow down their breakdown so he's not able to [break]. Once they make a little bit of gainline, he picks and goes. You need to nullify the things that happen before Dupont can do that.

"With the size of Toulouse's mountains they have, they will get over the gainline, they will get quick ball every now and again, and Dupont will have a go. If he does, you just have to try corral him, defend in numbers and just work hard. You can't stop him, you just have to nullify the threats around him."

We need your consent to load this comcast-player content We use comcast-player to manage extra content that can set cookies