Toulouse and France scrumhalf Antoine Dupont has questioned the “logic” of having South African teams in the European Champions Cup and Challenge Cup as his side prepare top face the Sharks in Durban on Saturday.

Dupont will remarkably play just a second ever game in the southern hemisphere after featuring for France against the Springboks at the same venue in 2017.

He has cried off French tours to the south before, and will likely not go to New Zealand in July either, but will finally play a game far away from home this weekend … albeit begrudgingly.

“We see it’s very hard to play all the games with all the travel with your first-choice team,” Dupont said. “Obviously, you ask questions about the logic of the competition.

He also denied it would be a chance for revenge for France’s quarterfinal loss to the world champion Springboks at the 2023 World Cup.

“For sure, memories will come back,” he said. “There’s no idea of revenge with that in mind. It’s a different context now but subconsciously a small part of us will think about it.

“We know that when they’re at home with their first-choice team they’re formidable.”