Dupont, the catalyst and the creator

BRENDAN GALLAGHER

WE live in an age of superlative sports stars.

Tadej Pogacar is very possibly the greatest cyclist we have ever seen, the triumvirate of Federer, Nadal and Djokovic will never be matched in tennis, Lewis Hamilton has the most Grand Prix wins ever (104 if you are interested) … and in rugby we have Antoine Dupont.

Yesterday he enjoyed the “Stade de France moment” he and his adoring nation had hoped the World Cup would bring last autumn. And surely an Olympic gold medal is the only thing compatible with a world championship.

The ultimate team man, he won Olympic gold as part of a rejuvenated and inspired France squad. He was as much the catalyst as the creator, indeed his role was often to come off the bench as an X-factor player and crowd lifter.

The silverware is now arriving thick and fast for Dupont. In recent years he has been the inspiration and main architect of two European Cup/Top 14 doubles for Toulouse and a Grand Slam for France in 2022.

For Sevens, this moment in the sun was much needed. Sevens rugby is made for the Olympics but it endured a disappointing false start in 2016 when it was staged in an out of the way pop up 12,000 seater stadium in a Rio suburb while Covid did its worst at Tokyo where no spectators were permitted. At neither did we get the sense of spectacle and fun a world class tournament can generate.

Not this time though and that’s despite, in my opinion, this not being a vintage Sevens field. It didn’t matter. The product is sound, the setting was incredible, the atmosphere off Richter scale. The Dupont factor was massive; it has upgraded the Sevens circuit this season; ensured 69,000 sellouts at all the sessions at the Stade; commandeered prime time TV slots and dominated back pages world wide for two or three days. This has been a very good weekend indeed for our sport.

Meanwhile, hard to imagine how anybody could be a bigger national hero than Dupont, but we will find out if France can get over the line at Rugby World Cup 2027 in Australia.