We are living in a time of true rugby greatness

Antoine Dupont is the greatest rugby player of all time and it is a privilege to witness!

The fascination with labelling sport stars as the greatest can be a tad tiring at times, especially in the world of football, where it feels like every top display in a major tournament leads to inflated debates on a player’s magnificence on the global stage.

Marcus Rashford scoring against Iran in a World Cup does not make him one of our greatest wingers, Declan Rice keeping possession in a midfield congested by Slovakians does not equate to Pirlo perfection.

There are, however, times in the life cycle of any sport when one player emerges, a player who oozes class and elegance. Dupont is that man on a rugby pitch.

We all have our own definitions and criteria for greatness. Some place great value on trophies and achievements, while others focus more on the quality of performance. I am in the latter camp.

There are so many wonderful exponents of their sport, who, through no fault of their own, fall short of a Djokovic-style trophy cabinet. George Weah was a brilliant footballer but Liberia were not going to win him a World Cup!

On that first definition of trophy-laden greatness, the aforementioned Novak Djokovic and Serena Williams are top examples in the tennis world. Both amassed trophies like tangfastics, and they did it with robotic efficiency.

Djokovic and Williams will always be regarded as extraordinary tennis players, obviously, but their greatness came from playing like machines. Williams was just too powerful for her peers and Djokovic relentless in his mental and physical dominance.

The stats say Djokovic is the best ever men’s player. He has 24 Grand Slam titles, two ahead of Rafa Nadal, the King of Clay, and four clear of the imperious Roger Federer, but if we frame the question as ‘Who is the best tennis player you have ever seen?’

Federer probably wins.  

I honestly remember flicking through Eurosport in the late 90s and stumbling across an obscure indoor tennis tournament. On one side of the net, was a pony-tailed young Swiss player I’d not seen before.

Within seconds, the kid named Roger whipped a sublime top-spin backhand down the line, and he did it with such elegance and style that you immediately knew he was going to be a special player.

Two decades later, Federer retired and the tennis world went into mourning. Nadal cried, Djokovic cried, Federer cried, we all cried at the end of an era. There will be huge admiration when Novak hangs up his strings but I’m not convinced there will be a flood of tears.

Tiger Woods is the greatest golfer to have played the game. Injury will stop him from eclipsing the Major Championship record of Jack Nicklaus but he took golf to a new level, and he did it with the Djokovic approach.

There was grace and elegance in the Woods game, particularly around the greens, but his greatness was more down to an imposing presence in his sporting arena. Tiger was better than everyone else, and everyone else knew it.

In the world of football, the GOAT argument does get a little boring. Messi or Ronaldo, Maradona or Pele. As a kid, I never thought it possible for any player to match the genius of Maradona but Messi has done that. Ronaldo is in the Djokovic – Woods camp of efficiency, and the goal record of Pele suggests he also belongs in that category.

However, one player who really ticked my Federer box was Zinedine Zidane. There was a time in his Juventus days that you could watch an entire game and Zidane would never give the ball away, not once, and it wasn’t the safe backward passing of a modern midfielder, it was penetrative, positive passing and sublime skill.

When it comes to the women’s game, if you’ve not seen her play before, please take the time to watch Aitana Bonmati, a Spanish midfield genius. Bonmati is playing her own game, while others race around her, she has more time than anyone else, sees things quicker than the rest, and does it with Federer – Zidane nonchalance.

Back to rugby, and the Six Nations kicked off with a terrific weekend of action. Scotland were too strong for Italy, England played pretty well before succumbing to a seemingly inevitable defeat in Ireland, and France walloped a woeful Wales.

There is no doubt that Welsh rugby is suffering a major slump, 13 straight defeats confirm that fact, but the display of Dupont would have been too much for even the great Wales teams of the 70s.

After a lively start in Paris, Wales competed admirably for the opening ten minutes, but when the ball was fed back to Dupont, he calmly pinged a precision kick over the Welsh defence, flighted perfectly for young winger Theo Attissogbe to collect at full pace and score in the corner.

Dupont delivered two more assists before being rested with 31 minutes of the game still left to play. He had done his job with immaculate elegance. Even a simple pop pass at the back of a scrum looks cool in the hands of Dupont.

Of course, there have been many superb rugby players in history. England’s Jonny Wilkinson was a legend of the game, but his greatness came from incredible consistency with the boot and a fierceness in the tackle that belied his comparatively smaller frame.

Martin Johnson was an inspirational leader, a World Cup winning captain, Alun Wyn Jones holds similar revered status for his time in charge of Wales, and All Black icon Jonah Lomu was famous for his battering ram pace and power.

One player I would compare to Dupont is the Kiwi legend Dan Carter. Like Dupont, he played the game at a different level, always creative and exploiting gaps in a defence. Carter was exceptional, a Federer – Zidane of his generation, but Dupont is a step up.

Don’t take my word for it, listening to a recent Podcast with former Wales fly-half Dan Biggar, a top player in his own right, the gushing tones with which he spoke about Dupont told the story. Biggar described Dupont as ‘the best’, a player who did things differently to the rest, and he should know.

Dupont was born in the small French village of Lannemezan in the south-west of the country, first playing rugby at the age of four. He signed for Auch as a junior and graduated through the ranks, later signing for Castres.

He switched to Toulouse in 2017 and won the Top 14 French League with his new club in 2019. Two years later, Dupont captained Toulouse to victory in the European Rugby Champions Cup.

Dupont’s international career began in the France U20 set-up, where he was quickly identified as a rising star. His senior debut arrived as a substitute in the comfortable Six Nations victory over Italy in 2017.

It was not long before he became captain of France and was the obvious poster-boy for the 2023 World Cup hosted in his home country. The French had an outstanding team, led by Dupont, and it was a time of national shock when they were beaten by eventual winners South Africa in the quarter-finals.

Dupont, however, would have his moment on the global stage a year later, when he guided France to Olympic glory in Paris, this time in the sphere of Rugby 7s. Dupont was masterful throughout the tournament, scoring in the final to secure a first ever gold medal at this event for France.

This weekend, Twickenham awaits for Dupont and France. Of course, like any rugby patriot, I will be hoping and praying England find something deep within to repel the genius of Dupont. Like Messi and Zidane on a football pitch, you only beat a French rugby team if you stop Dupont.

The brute force of Ollie Lawrence in midfield could help, the Curry boys will be everywhere, Maro Itoje an unstoppable unit at the breakdown and the half-back combination of Alex Mitchell and Marcus Smith does have potential.

But we don’t have Dupont!