Former France hooker Benjamin Kayser has called Antoine Dupont the “Michael Jordan of rugby” after the France captain inspired a 21-19 win over the Springboks in Paris.
Dupont was named player of the match at the Stade de France on Friday, as France built a 21-7 half-time lead and held on in the Nations Championship.
Kayser gave his verdict on The Good, The Bad & The Rugby the following morning.
READ MORE: France Player Ratings vs South Africa: A 9.5 For Antoine Dupont
‘Spectacular’
Kayser watched from the ITV studio alongside former Springboks wing Bryan Habana, and was in no doubt about the best player on the pitch.
“I thought Antoine Dupont has not played this well for the French team for a long time. He was spectacular,” he said. “He was the best player I’ve seen and he was Michael Jordan of rugby last night. I thought he was unbelievable.”
He listed the skill, the kicking and Dupont “tackling like an animal, always getting off the line”.
“What did he not do other than compensate the weaknesses in the scrum? He did everything and more,” he added. “So really huge respect for what he did.”
‘Really punchy’
Kayser also rated wing Aaron Grandidier-Nkanang, who scored one of France’s three first-half tries, as phenomenal, and singled out two more starters.
“Kalvin Gourgues, the outside centre from Toulouse, was really punchy, really interesting,” he said. “Grégory Alldritt was really, really solid in there.”
France had to rebuild their halves for the game. Romain Ntamack hurt his shoulder against Fiji the week before, with Matthieu Jalibert and Antoine Hastoy also out, so head coach Fabien Galthié named Dupont at 10 and Maxime Lucu at 9.
‘A one-off’
Kayser does not expect to see it again. He said Dupont rarely played as a fly-half on the night, a view Rassie Erasmus shared after the game: “Dupont was going to play 10, he played 9.” In the match Dupont spent long spells at scrum-half, and Lucu kicked all three conversions.
“I think it’s just for the here and now,” Kayser said.
Later he added: “I think Maxime Lucu did really well … So I think it’s a one-off. It is not new.”
Kayser also had news of Jalibert, who was at the Stade de France on Friday.
“They’re even saying that potentially Matthieu Jalibert could make it for the last round, for round four,” Kayser said, adding that the fly-half is “back almost full training”.
Kayser also saw France’s selection as Erasmus getting a dose of his own mind games.
“It’s Rassie Erasmus, take a bit of your own medicine,” he said.
He recalled Erasmus reading out England’s line-up before the 2023 World Cup semi-final. “He started giving them the line-up of England before the team was given,” Kayser said. “I love that.”
READ MORE: Rassie Erasmus admits Springboks were ‘outsmarted’ by France
Watch Benjamin Kayser on The Good, The Bad & The Rugby:
Comments
No one has weighed in yet.
Be the first - what did you make of it?