Such has been Antoine Dupont’s impact since making his France debut in 2017, numbers alone do not get close to doing him justice.
The frame of a bull, the acceleration of a wing and technical skills from the gods – Dupont’s skillset is otherworldly. A scrum-half who matches 20 try assists in the Six Nations with 20 turnovers simply is not normal.
It is not just in the XV-a-side game that Dupont has excelled. The prospect of representing his country at a home Olympics last year meant he missed the 2024 Six Nations to focus on sevens, and Dupont scored two tries as France beat favourites Fiji to win the gold medal at the Paris Games.
“The boys joke around and call him ‘The Martian’ as he is not from earth, he is an alien,” said Toulouse lock Emmanuel Meafou before last year’s Champions Cup final. “The stuff he does in games is only half of what he is capable of.”
And yet that half is better than virtually anyone else. In France’s 43-0 win against Wales on Friday, the 28-year-old’s shift lasted barely 50 minutes and yet he became the first player to provide three try assists in two separate men’s Six Nations matches.
The cross-field kick for Theo Attissogbe’s opening score was so casual, it was almost offensive.
Dupont next visits Twickenham’s Allianz Stadium, where he masterminded a record rout of seven tries in 2023. The England camp have been keen to stress this week that the 2022 Grand Slam-winning captain is only human, but his reputation is becoming anything but.
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