Peruse Ireland and France’s line-ups for Saturday’s potential title decider and you’ll find no shortage of instantly compelling head-to-head battles.
Caelan Doris v Gregory Alldritt pits two of the world’s best number eights against one another, Andrew Porter v Uini Atonio will be an engrossing scrum-time tussle, while powerhouse Irish centre Bundee Aki will meet his match in Yoram Moefana.
But naturally, most eyes are drawn to the battle of the scrum-halves.
In Antoine Dupont, France have a generational talent. A world player of the year in both the 15s and sevens codes, an Olympic gold medallist and a poster boy for his sport, Dupont has gleefully exhausted superlatives in recent years.
His otherworldly gifts even moved his Toulouse team-mates to refer to him as ‘the Martian’, Emmanuel Meafou revealed last year.
Dupont’s worthy adversary on Saturday is Jamison Gibson-Park. ‘Jamo’ to his team-mates, he is Ireland’s unflappable metronome and the frontrunner to wear nine for the British and Irish Lions in Australia this summer.
“Yeah, it will be interesting,” said Ireland interim head coach Simon Easterby.
“Two fabulous players at the peak of their game. There a number of individual battles across the teams, but that one will be pretty special.”
This will not be the first time Gibson-Park and Dupont have crossed paths, of course. They have twice met in the Champions Cup, including last year’s final when Dupont’s Toulouse beat Gibson-Park’s Leinster in extra-time.
They have met three times in the Six Nations, although not since 2022 (Gibson-Park was injured in 2023 while Dupont skipped last year’s championship).
This time, the stakes are suitably sky-high.
