Springbok wing Cheslin Kolbe has revealed who he believes was most deserving of the 2021 World Rugby Player of the Year award.

Antoine Dupont earned two-thirds of the public vote to be named World Rugby Men’s 15s Player of the Year for 2021, becoming the first Frenchman to win the prestigious award since former France captain and loose forward Thierry Dusautoir in 2011.

The 25-year-old has been at the heart of a fast-developing young France team capturing the imagination ahead of a home World Cup in 2023. Dupont fended off competition from Australian duo Samu Kerevi and Michael Hooper, as well as England’s Maro Itoje, to win the award.

In an exclusive interview with SA Rugby magazine, Kolbe was asked about Dupont, with whom he won the Top 14 and European Champions Cup at Toulouse last season.

“I have had the privilege to play alongside him at Toulouse and he is an unbelievable and gifted talent,” Kolbe told SA Rugby magazine. “He is a player that can basically do anything you ask of him and he makes it look so easy. I am just delighted for him to be named Player of the Year. I think he really deserved it and was the outstanding player by far.”

Kolbe is one of the Springboks’ outstanding attacking players over the past few years since making his Test debut in 2018, but said that Dupont has set a new standard for players the world over.

“Looking at the way he performed, he has definitely set the standard now for players, not just in the local competitions but across the world the way he has performed. It just now for us to measure ourselves against the best player in the world and be consistent in that too.”

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