IN THE deepest depths of France’s down period, Bernard Laporte claimed that any current French player could walk up and down the Champs-Élysées with no risk of being recognised.
That was in 2016, with les Bleus in the midst of what turned out to be a 12-year title drought in the Six Nations. Laporte’s fortunes have fluctuated dramatically in the years since he said that, but he will take comfort from the fact the statement is emphatically no longer true.
For much of 2023, posters of Antoine Dupont were everywhere, including Paris’ most famous avenue. Not since Sébastien Chabal has a French rugby player captured the imagination like Dupont. And what is all the more impressive is he’s done it almost entirely through performances on the pitch.
Dupont does not have Chabal’s iconic caveman look but he has already been crowned World Player of the Year and would be the most common refrain among rugby fans asked to name the best player on the planet. More than that, he has reached a level of fame that is truly rare for a non-English speaker.
Of current players, only South Africa’s double World Cup-winning captain Siya Kolisi has a bigger social media following.
Kolisi’s journey from absolute poverty growing up in a township in the Eastern Cape, to becoming the Springboks’ first black captain and twice lifting the World Cup, could have been written by Hollywood scriptwriters.
