Dupont motivated to win 'holy grail' at Paris Olympics
NEWS: France captain Antoine Dupont’s gamble to miss out on the 2024 Six Nations to focus on making the France Sevens Olympic team has paid off.
His presence has thrown in a delicious curveball to a tournament Dupont linked to sports’ holy grail.
The mercurial scrumhalf has established himself as one of the best players the sport has seen – with his presence at a home Olympics being a massive coup not just for the national team, but so too for the organisers.
His Six Nations sacrifice helped France to two wins on the HSBC World SVNS Series – which includes victory in the Madrid leg to break a 19-year-drought for the team.
Despite all this – he still led his club side Toulouse to the double of winning both the Champions Cup and Top 14 titles.
“For any sports fan, the Olympics are still mythical, the Holy Grail of sport. Hosting this event in France will be an incredible celebration and to be in with a chance of winning an Olympic medal is a highly motivating challenge,” Dupont said.
Missing out on the Six Nations didn’t sit all that well with many France supporters – following the side’s shock exit from the World Cup quarterfinal at home against eventual champions South Africa, but despite the criticism, his absence and Olympic presence, has been a long time coming.
“Antoine’s idea of playing in the Olympics has been in the works for two years,” France coach Fabien Galthie said in defence of the 2021 World Player of the Year.
Dupont rubbished the general view that sevens is often seen as the 15-a-side game’s poor cousin.
“It’s just as enjoyable and when you see how difficult it is to play these matches, these tournaments with the physical wear and tear of the third day, the emotions are heightened, too,” he said.
“Sharing that with a smaller squad is also enjoyable. There are no cliques, everyone shares the emotions together and these are very strong moments.”
Dupont admitted that his involvement in the sevens team “gave confidence to everybody”.
France Sevens captain Paulin Riva conceded that Dupont’s inclusion offered an extra dimension to the team following their Madrid success.
“Antoine is the best player in the world, we think! When he’s on the pitch we have a lot of confidence,” Riva said.
Dupont – who’s a mere 1.74 metres tall and weighing in at 85kg was crowned as the men’s Rookie of the Year following the Final.
“We already had the goal of winning, but to do so and to show that we’re capable of doing it twice by beating the best teams on the circuit, that shows we’re capable of victory,” Dupont said.
The Olympics, on home soil at the Stade de France, Dupont added, “will be a huge tournament, but we’ll try to get that trophy in July”.
France Sevens head coach Jerome Daret stated that he was never in any doubt about Dupont’s successful crossover.
“When you see the statistics from Antoine Dupont at last year’s World Cup, he is the player who made the most offloads, with a total of 10,” Daret said.
“He also has the ability to change pace and break that we are looking for. He has a great defence and can catch players 50 centimetres from the line, which is something we expect a lot in sevens.”
Dupont admitted that his transition was only a question of experience.
“Even if I have little experience in sevens, I have experienced complicated 15-a-side matches, very close ends of matches where we really had to come back to score or hold it. These moments are very useful for not panicking, respecting our principles, our group and individual playing patterns,” he said.
World Rugby boss Alan Gilpin stated that Dupont’s inclusion was essential to keep growing the sport.
“The Dupont impact is incredible,” Gilpin said.
“It’s provided a profile that we need to keep building.”
Dupont’s Olympic debut will be against the United States and Uruguay on July 24 in Pool C – with a last pool clash against Fiji and a potential quarterfinal the following day.
The semifinals and Final are scheduled for July 27.
