Antonie Dupont inspires France 7s to gold in Olympic rugby sevens
Antonie Dupont scored two second half tries for France 7s
©Steve Haag
France 7s 28-7 Fiji 7s, Stade de France
Antoine Dupont came off the bench to lead France to their first gold of the Paris Olympics as they defeated Fiji 28-7.
The gamble to bring in Dupont paid off heavily for France as he scored two tries in the second half to shut the doors on Fiji, who were the gold medal winners of 2016 and 2020 and were unbeaten in 17 Olympic matches. On the other hand, France did not even manage to qualify for the previous Olympics in Tokyo but they made a remarkable turnaround this time despite losing to Fiji just two days back.
"When I came the first day I wondered what I was doing here, if I made the choice to not play the Six Nations was the good one," Dupont said.
"We knew that physically we would be better at the end of the match. We had solid and efficient principles. Team spirit was remarkable.
"I've rarely heard such an atmosphere here in Stade de France. They made a lot of noise and we had to give them back, to put this Olympics on the right rails."
Fiji opened their account in the 2nd minute as Joseva Talacolo touched down and Teba kicked the conversion to provide them with an early 0-7 lead and the confidence to complete a hat-trick of Olympics title wins. Nevertheless, France responded on the stroke of the half time with Andy Timo offloading to Jefferson-Lee Joseph, who went over the line. Rayan Rebbadj kicked the conversion to level the scores at the end of a competitive opening half.
Dupont's presence was felt early in the second half as he set up Aaron Grandidier-Nkanang for France's second try which Paulin Riva converted to make it 14-7 and from there, Fiji never recovered.
Dupont ensured France's glory as he dived over from close range for their third try and followed it with a fourth for his side at the back of a rolling maul to bring in the celebration in front of the home crowd.
“It was not what we wanted but France were too good for us today," said Fiji's Jerry Tuwai.
"We started really well but a lot of things happened that didn’t go our way. I wanted to end my career with another gold but not everything goes to plan."
.jpg "Team GB are back in action on Tuesday as they target a fifth place finish at Paris 2024")
