Antoine Dupont will end his profession as one of many sport’s most embellished gamers, however speak over a “GOAT” is pointless in a sport as different as rugby, writes DYLAN JACK.
Dupont added to his already glittering wall of medals by serving to France win gold on the Olympic Video games, months after making the transition to sevens.
At simply 27, the French maestro already has 4 High 14s, two European Championships, a Six Nations grand slam and a Sevens Collection title – for what that’s price, on condition that France solely needed to win one event in Singapore to say the trophy and Argentina had been the precise league champions.
With Toulouse displaying no indicators of slowing down, and the FFR decided to pump as a lot cash as they’ll to see France win a World Cup over the following eight years, it’s affordable to suppose that when Dupont retires, he’ll accomplish that with accolades that rival most who’ve performed the sport.
Away from his trophy cupboard, it’s simple to see why Dupont has so many screaming his identify as not solely the most effective in his place, however the most effective to the touch a rugby ball within the skilled period.
Other than his glorious imaginative and prescient and playmaking that make him a risk whether or not he’s at scrumhalf or flyhalf, he defends with the doggedness of a blindside flank and his pilfer price is scarily near Richie McCaw’s.
With all that stated, is there actually some extent to electing Dupont – or another rugby participant – because the ‘Biggest Of All Time’ in a sport that’s as different throughout positions and eras as rugby?
In solo sports activities like tennis, swimming, and athletics that turns into much more of an apparent factor. You possibly can take a look at a Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer or Novak Djokovic at what number of grand slams they’ve gained. You possibly can decide a Usain Bolt by his working occasions and medal cupboard.
Even in a crew sport like soccer, it’s simpler, on condition that the likes of Leo Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo, Wayne Rooney, Bobby Charlton, Pele and Diego Maradona all did related jobs for his or her groups: rating objectives, seize assists and lead the crew’s assault.
However how, pray inform, do you examine the attacking wizardry of Dupont to Victor Matfield and Sam Whitelock’s lineout mastery, or the scrumming prowess of an Os du Randt and Beast Mtawarira?
Is Dupont even the most effective sevens participant of all time?
Which will appear a foolish query, given how shortly success has adopted his highway into the code. On the danger of sounding like a moaning Saffa, have we forgotten about what Cecil Afrika did with a Blitzboks crew that didn’t get pleasure from practically as a lot funding as France’s Olympic Sevens crew?
When Afrika first retired in 2020, he did so having guided the Blitzboks to back-to-back Sevens Collection wins – the place you truly needed to end high of the log after the collection to win it – and gained Commonwealth Video games gold (2014) and Olympic bronze (2016) medals.
On the age of 32, he retired with 1 462 Sevens factors, the seventh highest on the all-time factors scorers checklist, and essentially the most ever by a South African.
What about Waisale Serevi, who was a pioneer of success for Fiji’s sevens crew, or a contemporary legend in Jerry Tuwai? What about Michaela Blyde, Ruby Tui and Portia Woodman-Wickliffe, who’ve written their very own lore for New Zealand’s Sevens crew?
This isn’t to say that we shouldn’t have a good time Dupont as top-of-the-line at present enjoying the sport. It’s good for the expansion of rugby that we have now somebody who can produce as many spotlight moments when it issues as Dupont.
It additionally helps that Dupont is somebody who’s clearly not shy about embracing his fame, as so many rugby gamers nonetheless are, regardless that we’re over twenty years into the skilled period.
Gamers like Dupont positively assist appeal to new followers to a sport that’s nonetheless fairly area of interest when in comparison with soccer and is commonly a third-ranked sport – at greatest – in lots of international locations.
Not by any means do I consider that Dupont’s legend needs to be worse off simply because he hasn’t gained a World Cup.
However let’s simply maintain the horses in the case of placing a gold crown on Dupont’s head. Rugby’s magnificence comes from it celebrating gamers who do the soiled work of scrumming, mauling and rucking, as a lot because the flashy stuff.
OPINION: Give Olympic sevens extra star energy
Photograph: Emmanuel Dunand / AFP
