SAINT-DENIS, France — In a seven-minute clinic that’ll lengthy outline his legacy, Antoine Dupont scored two tries and created one other to ship a coveted gold medal for France and finish two-time champion Fiji’s Olympic dominance in rugby sevens.
One of many world’s finest rugby gamers, Dupont was saved for the second half on Saturday in a tactical ploy that labored to perfection when he swung momentum together with his first contact of the ball after which guided France to an emphatic 28-7 victory.
The mercurial playmaker skipped the Six Nations event and switched his consideration from the normal 15s format to rugby sevens in March to chase his once-in-a-lifetime likelihood to win an Olympic gold medal on house soil.
He can return to the French XV as an Olympic champion, not less than partly erasing the ache of his Rugby World Cup disappointment on house soil final 12 months.
“Simply an enormous award for us, for rugby, for all of the nation,” Dupont stated. “We actually felt that we characterize rugby, however we characterize all of the French sport as nicely.
“We’re actually proud to begin the Olympics like that.”
The French males did not qualify for the earlier Olympics in Tokyo, however can proudly boast France’s first gold of the Paris Video games. With Dupont on board, the French this season received their first title on the world sevens sequence circuit in virtually 20 years and added a victory within the sequence finale as nicely.
Fiji had by no means misplaced a rugby sevens recreation on the Olympics, taking a 17-game profitable streak into the title decider, and was peaking for the most important occasion as ordinary after an uncharacteristically inconsistent displaying on the earth sequence circuit.
“I do know the bar is ready actually excessive by the 2016 and 2020 squads — but it surely’s no imply feat profitable a silver medal on the Olympics,” Fiji coach Osea Kolinisau stated. “We needed to maintain the legacy going … we simply fell quick.”
A contest between Dupont and Jerry Tuwai, the two-time Olympic gold medalist and rugby sevens participant of the last decade, was pivotal.
The defending champions scored first and it was 7-7 when Dupont went onto the sphere simply after halftime.
Nearly instantly he took off down the left sideline on a long-range run deep into Fiji’s quarter, beating Tuwai’s tried deal with as he unloaded a move to Aaron Grandidier Nkanang to offer France a 14-7 lead.
His pair of late tries have been simply the icing for a raucous 69,000 capability crowd.
France’s win captured the eye of the host nation, the place rugby has lengthy been a supply of pleasure but additionally some harm — the French have by no means received the Rugby World Cup within the 15-a-side format, the head occasion within the sport.
Rugby sevens often takes a backseat to 15s among the many sport’s elite — till it involves the Olympics, when the virtually nonstop attacking nature of the sport and the booming music lend a celebration vibe to the tournaments.
The celebrations weren’t contained to the Stade de France, with followers watching tennis stars Rafael Nadal and Carlos Alcaraz compete collectively in doubles at Courtroom Philippe Chatrier in Roland Garros rising to applaud and yell and wave their French flags, then breaking right into a tune of “Allez, Les Bleus!”
And it did maintain going. The French sevens squad collected their gold medals atop the rostrum, then joined collectively and danced in the midst of the sphere.
South Africans win bronze
South Africa received the bronze medal regardless of conceding two late tries within the third-place match, with Shaun Williams taking advantage of an overlap within the final moments to beat Australia 26-19.
The South Africans, who additionally received the bronze on the Rio de Janeiro Video games in 2016, had a one-man benefit after Australian captain Nick Malouf was purple carded within the second half for a excessive deal with. The Australians rallied with two tries to degree however weren’t in a position to ship the sport to additional time.
New Zealand beat Eire 17-7 for fifth place and Argentina beat the U.S. males 19-0 within the seventh-place playoff.