THINKING ALLOWED
There are exceptions to the general rule – the best three-minute pop songs, James Joyce’s stories in Dubliners, the wonderful actor Toby Jones – but, all things considered, long is better than short. Test cricket versus T20? No contest. Test rugby against the seven-aside version. Please.
Union’s abbreviated form is not to be dismissed out of hand: the premium on skills and the demands on fitness are very high indeed. But, to these eyes at least, there is not enough going on – too little in the way of light and shade, too few ways of skinning a cat – for sevens to be fully satisfying.
Even so, it is only right and proper to support Antoine Dupont, the great French scrum-half, in his decision to play fast and loose with his day job as he focuses on a role at next year’s Olympic Games in Paris.
Had 15s been on the schedule, as it was when Les Bleus squared up to the United States in an eye-wateringly chaotic final a century ago, he would have been an automatic choice to carry the flag at the opening ceremony. As it isn’t, he’s on an altogether different and more difficult road.
There has been much moaning and groaning about the fact that the Six Nations will be stripped of its top-of-the-bill attraction, but the biggest annual tournament in the sport must be significantly smaller than we thought if it can be wrecked by the absence of a single individual.
Should the French take the opportunity to blood a Nolann Le Garrec or a Baptiste Jauneau, who’ll be complaining? Not this viewer. And, anyway, Dupont has earned all the slack we can cut him. He stands much taller in rugby than the short game has ever done and he belongs on the Olympic stage.
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