Six Nations key stars: Antoine Dupont the linchpin in this majestic France side

The 2023 Six Nations begins this weekend, and fans can expect another blockbuster Championship filled with sensational rugby, team tries and moments of individual brilliance.

In anticipation of the start of rugby’s greatest championship, Planet Rugby has a closer look at key players from each team.

Next up, it’s France superstar Antoine Dupont.

Background

Les Bleus’ linchpin was born in Lannemezan but grew up in Castelnau-Magnoac half-an-hour’s drive away in the south west of France. Dupont began his rugby playing journey early, featuring for Magnoac FC at the age of 4, before he played in the academy at Auch.

Castres spotted his obvious talent and brought him over in 2014, making his debut against Leinster later that year when he hadn’t even turned 18. The playmaker would soon become a regular first choice player at the club, performances which were rewarded with a spot in the French U20 side.

Despite not being selected for the 2015 World Rugby U20 Championship, he came back even stronger a season later to earn a spot in the squad for the 2016 version in England. Dupont shone, despite France’s disappointing ninth place finish, and would go from strength to strength after that.

At the age of just 20, he made his Les Bleus debut before joining Toulouse and immediately becoming an influential figure in their squad. Dupont then suffered a serious injury during the 2018 Six Nations, but it only proved a slight setback.

One he returned, the scrum-half started his ascent up the rugby ladder, culminating in his World Rugby Player of the Year award in 2021. Dupont also helped Toulouse return to the top of the domestic and European game as they claimed the double, leaving people in no doubt that he is one of the modern day greats.

Strengths

Dupont is quite simply a superstar that has all the flair associated with French rugby of years gone by. He does the scintillating line breaks, fancy off-loads and pinpoint cross-field kicks, which lead to tries and assists, but he is much more than that.

Everyone loves to watch the sparkling moments that the half-back produces but the reason he is so good is because his basics are outstanding. The 26-year-old has a sharp and consistent passing game, a very good box-kick and, most importantly, an astute rugby mind.

His ability to turn a messy breakdown into quick and clean ball is unrivalled, which just keeps France on the front foot. Les Bleus are such a fluid team with him in situ and they will hope he maintains his form over the next nine months.

It's becoming difficult to tell if Antoine Dupont is left or right-footed.

He is kicking off both at such a high standard.#FRAvRSA pic.twitter.com/nAbDp2jlFa

— Jared Wright (@jaredwright17) November 14, 2022

Weakness

None. Zero. Zilch. In rugby terms, at least. You never know, he might be a dreadful cook or could well be the laziest human around the house, but there is nothing in his rugby playing armoury that the playmaker doesn’t do well.

Even his carrying ability is freakish for a player of his size. Scrum-halves are meant to be weak, poor defensively and unable to be effective in tight spaces, but Dupont somehow confounds that logic. The 26-year-old continues to define scrum-half play and keeps getting better.

Six Nations history

Regarded as a significant talent from very early on, Dupont made his debut in the competition in 2017 at the age of 20, coming off the bench against Italy. He only featured twice more in the Six Nations – both as a replacement – until he became first choice scrum-half in 2019.

The Toulouse playmaker started the final three matches and became the primary decision-maker ahead of the Rugby World Cup, but it wasn’t until Fabien Galthie took over the coaching reins did Dupont’s abilities really come to the fore.

With France a much more cohesive unit under Galthie, he played a key role in their improvement in 2020 and 2021 – the form in the latter Six Nations helping him become the World Rugby Player of the Year – before Dupont helped them to the 2022 Grand Slam.

Interestingly, the 26-year-old wasn’t at his absolute best in last year’s triumph but was still mightily impressive as Les Bleus ended 12 years of frustration by claiming the title.

Why Dupont is crucial for Les Bleus

They call the scrum-half in France ‘le petit general’ as they are the ones that take the role of the primary decision-maker. It is the most important position in French rugby and it just so happens that they currently have the best player in the world in place at the base of the ruck.

Everything revolves around Dupont, who takes on much of the responsibility when it comes to dictating the game. Although Galthie has a number of other talented scrum-halves at his disposal, they can’t quite do the same job of the first choice number nine, who has an innate ability to pretty much always take the right option.

When Dupont hasn’t played, France haven’t quite had the same fluidity, so it is quite clear that he is absolutely vital to how they operate.

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