Youngs braced for battle with ‘best scrum-half in the world’
Ben Youngs believes he will be facing the player who is redefining the role of a scrum-half when England and France collide in the Guinness Six Nations at Twickenham.
Youngs will duel with Antoine Dupont for the second time on Saturday and has deep admiration for a dynamic 24-year-old whose expertise in attack and defence would ensure he is among the first names on a world XV team sheet.
Dupont, the 2020 player of the Six Nations, is the heartbeat of a resurgent France side and Youngs insists his unparalleled skill-set sets him apart from his rivals.
"I am hugely impressed with Dupont. He's really flying the flag for scrum-halves. He's the best scrum-half in the world and he's probably one of the best players in the world," Youngs said.
"You look at Will Genia when he first burst onto the scene he changed the way that nines play the game.
"Fast-forward 10 years and Antoine Dupont has come along and I think he will do the same. He'll change the way nines play.
"He's unique. He's such a powerful guy. He's a very compact bloke. He's an extremely instinctive player and once the French pack gets rumbling he's extremely explosive around the ruck area.
"I don't know where he's going to end up. In another seven or eight years he's going to be incredible.
" I can't compliment him enough. I can recognise talent when I see it, I can recognise a serious player in my position when I see it, and I believe he's the best scrum-half in the world.”
Edinburgh centre James Johnstone is relishing the opportunity to go head-to-head with Racing 92’s superstars and hopes his sevens experience will stand him in good stead in Paris next month.
Richard Cockerill’s side were drawn against the French heavyweights in the last 16 of the Heineken Champions Cup in what should be a fantastic match.
Racing reached the final last year and are arguably the most exciting club side in European rugby at the moment, boasting a backline that includes Finn Russell, Virimi Vakatawa, Simon Zebo and Juan Imhoff.
For Johnstone, a Scotland sevens international, it’s a chance to lock horns again with Vakatawa, Racing’s outstanding Fijian-born French international.
“I’m pretty excited, to be honest. It’s a great draw,” said the Edinburgh man. “They’ve got some great quality players but we’ve shown in the past when we’ve got it right what we’re capable of. But you need to be
at your best to beat these sort of teams. We know we can compete with them and it will be a great challenge.
“You just want to test yourselves against the best in the game. You play rugby to be involved in the big games against the big teams.
“We obviously know Finn pretty well. He’s a fantastic player so it would be great to come up against him. I played against a few others at sevens back in my time like Vakatawa at No 13 so it would be great to play against him if I were selected. He’s a great player.
“How do you stop him? Good question! He’s a pretty good all-rounded player. It’s just about taking away time and space from these guys. You don’t want to allow them huge run-ups as they’re very good at manipulating defences. It’s just about getting stuck in to be honest. That’s how we approached it before. You can’t hesitate against these sorts of guys or they’ll cut you to ribbons.”
Before Paris, Edinburgh must resume the quest for Pro14 points and this weekend’s match takes them to Galway where they will face Connacht on Saturday night.
“It’s always a tough place to go,” said Johnstone. “Connacht have been playing some good rugby this year. We need to be on it on Saturday.”