Dazzling Antoine Dupont and France storm to gold in Olympic rugby sevens | Paris Olympic Games 2024

Glory be, the Video games are going to must go some to prime their begin on the Stade de France on Saturday night time. France received their first gold medal of those Olympics in essentially the most unbelievable fashion, with a ring-a-ding, rope-a-dope 28-7 victory within the males’s rugby sevens remaining in opposition to the two-time Olympic champions Fiji. It wasn’t solely orchestrated by Antoine Dupont, it was conceived, composed and carried out by him too. Dupont, the face of the Video games, met the second in a method few athletes labouring beneath the heavy weight of nationwide expectation, ever do.

Within the area of seven minutes, the scrum-half made one try to scored two extra. No matter else occurs within the subsequent fortnight, his play in these moments shall be a part of the spotlight reel of the Video games. He did all of it in entrance of a capability crowd, the most important ever assembled for a sport of sevens. Emmanuel Macron was there among the many hundreds, the president beaming down from the balcony whereas everybody belted out La Marseillaise. You might nearly catch the golden tint of all that mirrored glory on his good white enamel.

Nobody actually anticipated this besides, maybe, Dupont himself. 4 years in the past France had been so dangerous they didn’t qualify. Fiji could also be a a lot smaller nation however they received gold in 2016, did it once more in 2020 and had been unbeaten in 17 video games of Olympic competitors. In all that point, nobody had come inside 4 factors of beating them. France misplaced to them by seven solely two days in the past. And midway via the match it regarded as if they had been going to go right down to them once more, similar to Nice Britain and New Zealand had in finals earlier than this one.

They had been 7-0 down after 90 seconds, after they had been slashed aside by Selesitino Ravutaumada, who burst via Paulin Riva’s sort out and punched previous Stephan Parez-Edo Martin. The ball flickered on as soon as, twice, extra, and earlier than anybody knew it Joseva Talacolo had scored.

France did pull one again in opposition to the run of play when Andy Timo wriggled via a sort out and put away Jefferson-Lee Joseph with an offload. However they had been scrabbling to remain within the sport, and the ambiance across the floor was awkward and uneasy.

After which Dupont got here on. Nice man idea holds that historical past might be defined by the affect of our heroes, and France positive had a type of to assist them make this little little bit of it. He was ready proper there within the backfield after half-time. The ball broke unfastened to him from the restart, and together with his first contact he picked it up and set off down the wing. You might nearly sense his thoughts slowing down as his legs sped up and he made the minute calculations about what to do subsequent as he ran breakneck into the Fiji half, 10m, 20m, 30m, 40m, on in direction of the nook.

It felt as if he was hauling all of France together with him.

Dupont blew by the good Jerry Tuwai, who was a member of each these gold-medal groups, and pressed on. He flicked an overhead go inside to Aaron Grandidier Nkanang simply as the duvet closed in and he was bundled into contact. Grandider made it 14-7 and abruptly the France workforce appeared to shed the inhibitions that had affected them within the first half. They had been irresistible, and all over the place. Fiji, whose coach had promised earlier than the match that they would depart their opponents “chasing shadows” had been powerless to do something about it.

France flickered from side to side round them, darting, dashing, reducing, thrusting. Dupont scored the third attempt with a tap-and-go from shut vary and a fourth off the again of a rolling maul simply to ensure. By then it was bedlam within the stadium. It’s imagined to be dry throughout the Olympics, however you’d by no means have guessed the gang had been sober. The place was shaking so onerous whereas the gang bounced round it felt as if the stands had been about to come back tumbling down.

Rugby is meant to be the workforce sport and there’s little doubt that a part of the rationale Dupont’s nice experiment in shifting throughout from the 15-man model labored so nicely was as a result of he introduced so little of his ego together with him when he parachuted into the squad firstly of the yr.

“He tailored to our rules of play,” mentioned Riva afterwards. “He put every little thing else to 1 facet for the workforce.” After it was throughout, he was on the market within the huddle, one other of the boys, whereas they confirmed off their dance strikes in the course of the pitch.

However nonetheless, it has seldom felt a lot like a solo sport because it did on Saturday night time. Dupont took this sport and in opposition to the chances turned it the best way he wished it to go. He did one thing solely the easiest athletes are capable of do, and he shall be rewarded for it together with his gold medal and a fame nicely past something anybody in his sport has achieved earlier than.