Sir Gareth Edwards, considered the greatest scrum-half of all time, has heaped praise on this generation’s best nine, Antoine Dupont.
By the end of his career, the France superstar could have taken that mantle of the best-ever having already established himself at the top of the modern day game.
Dupont is a linchpin for both club and country, winning a Six Nations Grand Slam, two Champions Cups and four Top 14 titles.
Individual awards
Individually, the playmaker has been named World Rugby Men’s 15s Player of the Year once and Six Nations Player of the Championship on three occasions.
He has also been picked in World Rugby Men’s 15s Dream Team of the Year three times and was recently named World Rugby Men’s Sevens Player of the Year after helping France to Olympic gold in Paris.
All this has been achieved by the age of 28, with Dupont potentially having years left in which to pick up even more accolades.
He has certainly impressed Edwards, who appeared on Scrum V Top 5 with comedian Mike Bubbins to pick his best players of the Six Nations era.
“One of the dominant players, if not the dominant player, in Europe over the last two or three seasons has been Antoine Dupont,” the Welsh great said.
“He’s an outstanding player, a pocket dynamo really, has got all the attributes of a scrum-half.”
Bubbins then asked: “If you are playing in the same team as Antoine Dupont, who’s wearing the nine jersey?”
Edwards responded: “That’s obvious, I will be wearing that!” before going on to explain why, adding: “He’s (Dupont) good enough to play outside-half, centre, full-back.
“I’ve enjoyed watching him play. Lots of his play from broken play is outstanding, so that in itself shows me that he has an attribute that doesn’t just confine him to one position.”
Ex-Springboks star: ‘Antoine Dupont is the most influential player I’ve seen in my lifetime’
Comparisons
There has been almost inevitable comparisons between Edwards and Dupont, and Bubbins certainly agrees with that view.
“He reminds me of you when I watch him play,” Bubbins said. “When you see him go from the base of the scrum, he loves to snipe, he’s very powerful, he’s got a low centre of gravity, he’s got a good service, he reads the game well.
“He is like a French Gareth Edwards.”
Edwards didn’t feel like he could comment on that, but the 77-year-old was effusive with his praise for the outstanding France captain.
“You never see yourself as like anybody else, I don’t even know what I played like,” he said. “Sometimes when I look on TV, I go, ‘is that what we did?’
“But Antoine is an outstanding all-round footballer. In actual fact, we could interact and interchange – he might start off as scrum-half and I might start off as an outside-half.
“People like Antoine can move and change about, and slot into several positions. I can imagine him coming in from the full-back position.”
‘Long may he continue playing well’
While Edwards does not feel like he can judge whether Dupont is similar in game style, the Welshman is quite content to be compared to the 28-year-old.
“Over the last two or three years I’ve been invited out to Paris to present their player of the season which is inevitably Antoine. So I’ve enjoyed presenting him with his award for another outstanding season,” he said.
“It’s taken 50 years to be compared with somebody, so be it. Long may he continue playing well.”
Src: Planetrugby.com - https://www.planetrugby.com/news/antoine-dupont-labelled-the-french-gareth-edwards-as-legendary-scrum-half-hails-frances-pocket-dynamo
