"After a vote in which more than 50,000 people voted, Dupont was elected and therefore wins this prize for the second time," the Six Nations committee said in a statement, noting that the scrum-half had brought together nearly 50% of the votes.
The 25-year-old Toulousain, captain of the Blues, winners of the Grand Slam for the first time since 2010, beat his teammate in the selection, the third row from La Rochelle Gregory Alldritt, and the Irish flanker Josh Van der Flier.
These three players had been nominated by a representative panel of the media covering the Tournament.
"Antoine fully deserves this title (...) He is an exceptional player and at the heart of a growing French team. He has the ability to keep the public spellbound every time he touches the ball" , said the boss of the Six Nations, Ben Morel.
The scrum half of the XV of France Antoine Dupont scores the 3rd try against England, on March 19, 2022 at the Stade de France in Saint-Denis FRANCK FIFE AFP / Archives
"Thanks to the votes of the general public on social networks", Antoine Dupont "enters a little more into the history of European and world rugby", welcomes the French Rugby Federation in a press release.
Since the creation of this award in 2004 by the Six Nations Committee, Dupont had been the first Frenchman to receive this award at the end of the 2020 edition.
With this new distinction, he therefore enters the very closed circle of players to have received this trophy several times, alongside Irish fly-half Brian O'Driscoll (2006, 2007, 2009) and Scottish full-back Stuart Hogg (2016, 2017).
In the absence of Charles Ollivon, injured in the knee, Dupont, elected best player in the world in 2021 by World Rugby, had been promoted captain by the coach of the Blues Fabien Galthié in November.
Under his mandate, France has chained eight victories in as many meetings, including a historic success (40-25) against the All Blacks on November 20, and the Grand Slam in the 2022 Tournament, its tenth and the first for twelve years. .
© 2022 AFP