CHAMPIONS CUP PREVIEW: Durban is a frontier for Dupont to cross

He is the most hyped rugby player in the world currently and he’s 28 so he’s also not exactly a new kid on the block. And yet the questions around Antoine Dupont persist - is he over-hyped, does he justify the billing some give him as the finest to have played the sport?

Part of the reason Dupont’s detractors have breathing space is because he hasn’t played any meaningful rugby in the southern hemisphere, which is where the sport’s Holy Grail silverware, the Webb Ellis trophy awarded to the winners of the Rugby World Cup, has resided for all but four years since the first global showpiece tournament in 1987.

On social media you might find him referred to as rugby’s equivalent of cricket’s flat track bully. The two aren’t really comparable, but while there isn’t as great a difference in the playing conditions encountered either side of the equator (particularly not if the northern player you are referring to is from France) as there is between some of the sub-continent wickets compared to elsewhere, there is a smidgen of validity to the question mark.

Dupont hasn’t played against the All Blacks at Eden Park, he hasn’t played against the Springboks in Johannesburg or Pretoria.

When he runs out onto Hollywoodbets Kings Park on Saturday evening (assuming of course he does as the teams haven’t been announced yet) it will be his first venture onto a southern hemisphere rugby field for a regular format game since his 24 minutes at the same venue as a youngster in 2017. That is why there is a frontier for him to cross.

A RARE OPPORTUNITY TO PROVE A POINT

It appears unlikely that France will take a full strength squad to New Zealand for their scheduled three-test series later in the year, so Saturday’s Investec Champions Cup game between Dupont’s Toulouse and the Hollywoodbets Sharks looks likely to remain a rare opportunity, if he sees it thus, for Dupont to prove a point.

Of course, the humidity that makes rugby such a difficult business in Kwa-Zulu/Natal in the summer months notwithstanding, there is no reason why Dupont should not make his presence felt in the same dominating way that he does when he plays the other side of the equator.

Unless the Sharks have hatched a plan to neutralise him, and that plan proves successful. If they can’t neutralise Dupont’s influence, then their chances of achieving the win they need to keep their Champions Cup ambitions alive will evaporate into the Durban night air.

Regardless of what the detractors say, he is that good, one of those generational players, who can win a game on his own, and that is the case regardless of where the game is played. If the opposition let him.

GOAT CONVERSATIONS ARE EMOTIONAL AND MOOT

Whether Dupont is the best there ever was is a moot point and that conversation will always be emotional. And perhaps also directed by fans and pundits being caught up in the here and now. It has been quite amusing watching the Australia/India cricket test series and hearing commentators refer to Jaspith Bumrah as “the best fast bowler ever”.

Place them in a time machine and transport them back into a different era when, say Malcolm Marshall was in his pomp, they’d say a different thing.

No-one who was at Newlands on the day that Jonah Lomu ran all over England in the 1995 World Cup semifinal would have argued against the contention that he was the best rugby player ever. Not in that moment.

His impact was just so devastating and it made people forget amidst all the hype around the giant All Black wing about what was being said about Gareth Edwards 20 years earlier.

What we do know though is that Dupont is a special player, and on the same field on Saturday will be an iconic player in another position who many would feel can also lay claim to being the best there is right now.

World Rugby has never recognised him like they should, but when this generation of players is looked back upon once they have been consigned to history, there will probably be as many people if not more who will remember Eben Etzebeth as will remember Dupont.

HAVING ETZEBETH AND DUPONT ON SAME FIELD IS SPECIAL

The presence of Etzebeth and Dupont on the same field, along with the other marquee players on both sides, gives the Kings Park game the Galacticos touch that makes South Africa’s participation in the Champions Cup so important for the franchise level of the game in this country.

When La Rochelle visited Cape Town last year to play the DHL Stormers it felt like we were watching a team the next level up. Toulouse have even more of an international look than La Rochelle do, certainly more French internationals to lend credence to Ox Nche’s claim that it’s “Springbok DNA against France DNA”.

Leinster are a Galacticos team too but only once in their several visits to South Africa have they come at full strength, and that was for their Vodacom United Rugby Championship semifinal last year against the Vodacom Bulls. So the visits of the likes of Toulouse and La Rochelle are special and they should show local fans what being part of the Champions Cup is all about.

ESTERHUIZEN WILL BE MISSED

The Stormers dug deep to edge La Rochelle in their pool game last year and then came close in the round of 16 game a few months later. The Sharks will have to dig deep too, and they will miss in particular the influential midfield presence of Andre Esterhuizen, who was injured last time out and will be away from the game for a few more weeks.

But Etzebeth should be back, and Bongi Mbonambi too, and the Sharks also have a double World Cup winning skipper in their pack. There is enough experience and quality there for the Sharks to push Toulouse, particularly on their home field.

These sides have met just once before, and that was in the 2023 quarterfinal at Toulouse. The hosts won comfortably enough on the scoreboard but the game was in the balance up until there was about a quarter hour left. The French were playing on their own field then, they are on a different track now. The Sharks need to show them that coming to South Africa is one of the toughest challenges a player and a team can face.

BULLS UNDER PRESSURE

The Bulls didn’t do that when they hosted Northampton Saints the last time they played in this competition, and it is why they join the Stormers in effectively seeing their playoff stage in this competition arrive in round 3 rather than the round of 16, as it did last year.

We will have to see what team Jake White announces later on Friday before we can establish whether the Bulls will be seeing their late Saturday night game against French club Castres as a stepping stone to an all out effort to make the round of 16 when they return to Loftus next week. It would be understandable given what is required to sneak into the playoffs if the Bulls started to focus on the URC.

Ditto the Stormers, although they do have the advantage of playing the Sale Sharks on their home field at the DHL Stadium. Having come off a two week break following a duo of derbies that may have turned their URC season around, the Stormers can go for broke at home against Sale and, in the words of their coach John Dobson, see what happens.

If the Stormers come away with full points, then they can go all out against Racing 92 when they head to France next week.

The Stormers are getting top players back at just the right time and, Steven Kitshoff and Damian Willemse being the exceptions, they look not far off full strength when it comes to player availability (Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu is also unlikely to face Sale).

STORMERS NEED TO MAINTAIN MOMENTUM

They are still making a lot of mistakes, but the wins over the Emirates Lions and the Sharks will have given them some momentum and confidence, and their No 8 Marcel Theunissen summed it up when he said this week that “it feels like the good days are back”.

The good days and the momentum were with the Bulls until they went to Saracens on a particularly stormy night at the start of the Champions Cup, but after following up with defeats to the Saints and then the Sharks in Durban there’s a losing sequence developing that needs to be snapped.

Regardless of what team White puts out against Castres, the Bulls’ performance will be watched with interest. Not that the games featuring South African teams should be the only ones of interest to local fans this weekend.

LA ROCHELLE V LEINSTER IS HUGE TOO

If the Durban fixture should be accorded Galacticos status, so should the one on Sunday when two-time champs La Rochelle host four time champions Leinster. The two sides met in two spicy and close Champions Cup finals in 2021/2022 and 2022/2023 and with former Ireland and Munster star Ronan O’Gara coaching the French side, there is plenty of rivalry between the two.

When at full muster Leinster do belong in the Galacticos bracket, as they are almost an Ireland international team in all but name, and they will have their top team against La Rochelle, who apart from their French internationals also feature international stars like Wallaby lock Will Skelton.

The two protagonists are tied at the top of Pool 2 on nine points each. Toulouse are tied with Bordeaux, with 10 points each, in Pool 1, so that’s the visiting team’s motivation in the Kings Park game.

Some of the overseas URC teams that South Africans have become familiar with also play decisive games in this round, not the least of them Munster, who host Saracens at Thomond Park. Both clubs have a rich history in the competition and will be desperate to win.

The Italian team, Benetton, are relatively newcomers to this level, but have made a good start with five points from two matches in Pool 2. If they can upset the Bristol Bears at Ashton Gate, they will be up with and maybe even ahead of whoever loses between La Rochelle and Leinster on the log come Sunday evening.

With Pool 4 leaders Toulon facing a potentially difficult date with Harlequins, who thumped the Stormers before Christmas, a Glasgow Warriors win over Racing in the first game of the weekend (Friday night) could elevate them to the top of the log with one game to play.

The EPCR Challenge Cup is also hotting up, with the Emirates Lions looking for an away win against French club Montpellier, while the Toyota Cheetahs are at their home from home, meaning Amsterdam, for their clash with Zebre on Sunday.

INVESTEC CHAMPIONS CUP ( Third Round)

Glasgow Warriors v Racing 92 (Glasgow, Friday 10pm)

DHL Stormers v Sale Sharks (Cape Town, Saturday 3pm)

Hollywoodbets Sharks v Toulouse (Durban, Saturday 5:15pm)

Exeter v Bordeaux Begles (Exeter, Saturday 5:15pm)

Munster v Saracens (Limerick, Saturday 7:30pm)

Stade Francais v Northampton Saints (Paris, Saturday 7:30pm

Castres v Vodacom Bulls (Castres, Saturday 10pm)

Leicester Tigers v Ulster (Leicester, Saturday 10pm)

Toulon v Harlequins (Toulon, Sunday 3pm)

La Rochelle v Leinster (La Rochelle, Sunday 5:15pm)

Bristol v Benetton (Bristol, Sunday 5:15pm)

Bath v Clermont-Auvergne (Bath, Sunday 7:30pm)

EPCR CHALLENGE CUP GAMES

Gloucester v Scarlets (Friday, 10pm)

Perpignan v Cardiff Rugby (Saturday, 3pm)

Vannes v Edinburgh (Saturday, 3pm)

Black Lion v Bayonne (Saturday, 5:15pm)

Ospreys v Newcastle (Saturday, 7:30pm)

Montpellier v Emirates Lions (Saturday, 7:30pm)

Connacht v Lyon (Saturday, 10pm)

Toyota Cheetahs v Zebre (Sunday, 3pm)

Dragons v Pau (Sunday, 5:15pm)