Antoine Dupont has a good claim to being the greatest halfback of all time. Photo / Getty Images
Antoine Dupont has a good claim to being the greatest halfback of all time. Photo / Getty Images
OPINION
Phil Gifford rates the World Cup chances of four European teams and highlights a remarkable story of courage overcoming violence.
Napoleon would applaud this general
In France’s squeaky 30-27 victory over Scotland in Saint-Etienne, French captain Antoine Dupont showed yet again why he deserves to be ranked as thegreatest halfback of all time.
You could fairly make a similar claim for Welshman Gareth Edwards, Australia’s Nick Farr-Jones, or our own All Blacks legend Aaron Smith.
But against Scotland, playing without the luxury of a dominant forward pack, Dupont yet again made the difficult look easy, matching his huge physical gifts of speed and power with a rugby brain so sharp that he was a key figure in all three French tries.
For the All Blacks in Paris in four weeks, containing Dupont could be the winning or losing factor in the World Cup’s opening game.
Apologies to the kilted
A week ago, I wrote off Scotland’s 25-21 win over France as a result based on France fielding a second XV.
The big guns lined up for France in Saint-Etienne, and now I realise Scotland needs to be taken seriously. Coach Gregor Townsend has his team playing with adventure and accuracy, steered around the track by a first five in Finn Russell who doesn’t rely, as too many northern inside backs do, on kicking as his first option.
To advance to the quarter-finals at the World Cup, Scotland will have to beat either South Africa or Ireland. If there’s to be an upset at the Cup to echo Japan’s famous 2015 win over the Springboks, Scotland may be the team to do it.
Good player, pity about the red mist
England’s scratchy 19-17 win over Wales at Twickenham won’t be remembered for the quality of rugby, but for yet another moment of ill-discipline by England’s captain Owen Farrell, who was red-carded for a head-high, no-arms illegal tackle on Welshman Taine Basham.
In most areas of the game, Farrell is a tidy, clever player. But when it comes to tackling, he can act as if he thinks he’s playing Aussie league in the 1980s, when head-shots were greeted with applause from the crowd and gleeful roars of “Oooh, that’s left the bloke in Disneyland!” from commentators.
Farrell’s record is appalling. In 2020, he was banned for five weeks for a dangerous tackle in a club game. He was suspended again in January for a high shot in a game for his English club Saracens.
After attending a World Cup tackle course in January, he said he wanted “to play a big part” in England playing as “fair and safe as we possibly can”.
To be blunt, unless the tackle school lessons sink in a lot further, he’s a risk not only to opposing players, but to his own side’s chances at the Cup.
Owen Farrell was sent off against Wales. Photo / Getty Images
Luck of the bizarre draw
England and Wales will probably make the quarter-finals in France.
At Twickenham, there was promise from Wales, but coach Warren Gatland would have been deeply disappointed with a lineout that was, to be as polite as possible, massively shaky. There are enough gifted backs to suggest a bright future. But although next month in France may be too soon for the Welsh to advance in knockout play, they should get past Fiji, and possibly Australia, in their pool.
England? Whether this England side, that looks like an older, slower version of 2019′s Cup finalists, can beat Argentina in their pool is questionable. But they should be hefty enough to overcome Japan.
Pressure? What pressure?
Nika Amashukeli, the referee from Georgia who was in control of the England-Wales test, is only 29 years old, but it’s easy to understand why such a young official is unfazed by shouts and whistles from a big crowd.
He was tough-minded enough to continue refereeing after being stabbed by a disgruntled fan following a 2016 club game in Poti in Georgia. The home team, Batumi, had been denied a win by a last-minute penalty goal awarded by Amashukeli.
“After I left the pitch,” he told London’s Daily Telegraph rugby reporter Charles Richardson, “there was a lot of abuse and swearing. Suddenly, I felt something in my leg. I looked down. Blood was pouring out. I had been stabbed. It was shameful, but I was never going to quit.”
