I’ve watched Antoine Dupont three times this season. Conclusion: he’s a genius
His man-of-the-match performance in Toulouse’s Champions Cup final triumph rounded off an unbelievable season
for the best rugby player of his time.
Today, it feels very tempting to declare Antoine Dupont the best player in the world. to provide enough proof to
support the Frenchman’s selection as the top person in the pantheon and as the first among equals in the present.
From a pool match at Harlequins’ Stoop to a semi-final at Toulouse’s Le Stadium to Saturday’s Investec Champions
Cup final at Tottenham Hotspur in north London, this reporter has had the pleasure of obtaining first-hand
testimony on multiple occasions this season. Dupont captained Stade Toulousain to their record-extending sixth
European title.
In actuality, no one can categorically rank Dupont as superior to the formidable lock and leader Martin Johnson, the
enormous wing Jonah Lomu, a game-managing fly-half like the incredibly fluid Dan Carter, or a snaffling flanker like
Richie McCaw or Michael Jones.
Some may stick with another scrum-half, Gareth Edwards, the master of the late 1960s and early 1970s, whose
barrel-chested Dupont emulates his upper-body power and quick thinking (the first metre is run in the head before
any teammate or opponent knows what is occurring).
Is the 27-year-old clearly better than Edwards or other outstanding No. 9s like Joost van der Westhuizen and Aaron
Smith? Perhaps, perhaps not. We can undoubtedly celebrate Dupont and look forward to many more opportunities
to engage in the discussion.
The documentation from Saturday could be time-coded, if you like, to use the terminology of the match officials
making knife-edged decisions during a thunderous final that went to extra time, with a yellow card to Leinster’s
James Lowe and a red to Toulouse’s Richie Arnold in that added period, before the French side prevailed, 31-22.
Dupont’s afternoon of 100 minutes, stretched across two and three-quarter hours of unremitting drama by the
requisite stoppages and breaks, began with one of his trademark inside-line chases of a kick by Juan Cruz Mallia, and
a toe scraped into touch as he took a tackle from Jamison Gibson-Park, to chalk off Mallia scoring a try in the second
minute.
And even that moment was actually two moments in Dupont’s favour – firstly, because his particular personality in
playing this complicated game is to serve up what might be seen as frivolity with cool-headed implacability. When he
lobs a behind-the-back ball or a feather-light pop pass, or kicks long or short off either foot, it is not to taunt or show
off, but simply because it is the right play at the right time.
On this occasion, Sheehan happened to see it coming and put Dupont in a spot, so he made it good with a covering
sprint – overtaking his team-mate Jack Willis, the rock-hard English flanker who would be nudging greatness too if
he possessed the same speed of foot – to execute a brilliant turnover.
But to continue describing Dupont by means of a list – oh, how about the 50-22 in the 33rd minute that sailed over
Lowe’s head and into the only available sliver of space to the side of the full-back Hugo Keenan? – needs to give way
to a preference for feels, and just the smile-inducing thrill of witnessing a generational talent.
As the former France hooker Benjamin Kayser said of Dupont on TV: “A complete performance – other than
scrummaging and throwing in at the line-out, he pretty much did everything.”
When Dupont was deflected from leading his country to winning a home World Cup last October by having his
cheekbone caved in by a centre from Namibia, it splashed a tearful blot on his copybook, and sent a nation into
sporting mourning, while half-ruining the global tournament for many of us neutrals.
Dupont has since turned, unusually for one of his stature, to gracing a different stage, in France’s seven-a-side team,
who are automatically qualified for the Olympic Games in Paris this summer.
Let’s not forget, a large number of those in the 61,500 crowd at Tottenham were hoping more for a Leinster win than
obsessing about Dupont, and they would have had it if the Irish side had moved Ciaran Frawley nearer for his failed
dropped goal attempt in the 79th minute of normal time, after 11 phases.
Leinster has now lost four consecutive Champions Cup finals (2019, 2022, 2023, and 2024). They also don’t seem to
have the same level of presence of mind or swearing as England’s Neil Back, Matt Dawson, and Johnson when they
made the historic drop for Jonny Wilkinson in the 2003 World Cup final.
Meafou added that his respected captain is modest and avoids talking about himself. I tried asking Dupont to select
his best moments from a final in which he was chosen as the player of the match and the European club
season.Dupont stated: “Today, my title is not the most significant thing. There’s a unique vibe about this
competition. When you sign with the team and the European Cup matches are approaching, you immediately have
that feeling. The environment changes, therefore it was crucial that we won, and it is a tremendous amount of joy.
We prevailed, which makes me glad.
Did he really not want to mention any particular moments? Dupont said, “The last action, yes,” emphasising, as
usual and rightly, how the oval-ball genius’s top priority was winning the trophy for the team and “Tolosa,” the old
name for Toulouse that was printed on the players’ commemorative six-time winners’ t-shirts.
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