ANT CAN MAKE IT A TRIOMPHE

Icon Dupont ready to fire hosts

- ALEX SPINK

HOW fitting that 100 days out from the Rugby World Cup a giant image of Antoine Dupont should have been beamed onto the Arc de Triomphe in Paris.

The 19th century monument bears the names of France's great victories and its generals. Dupont found himself in good company.

The world's best player captains a France rugby team installed as joint favourites with New Zealand, whom they play tonight, to win the Webb Ellis Cup.

Just as all roads lead to the Arc, so all debate around whether France finally has a team to rule the world comes back to their scrum-half talisman.

"Nothing fazes him, he's an icon," defence coach Shaun Edwards said of the poster boy of the tournament, a 26year old named most valuable player in the Six Nations three times since 2020.

Nicknamed 'The Gifted' from an early age, Dupont has led France to the top of the game, taking the scalps of every opponent along the way.

Ireland might narrowly top the world rankings but the host nation are the team on everybody's lips as 600,000 fans arrive from overseas.

World Cup winner Paul Grayson said: "Every now and then a player comes along and elevates an entire sport through their genius. Rugby now has that player in Dupont and I see him taking them all the way.