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Antoine Dupont magic not enough in his first sevens tournament

By PA
TOPSHOT - France's Antoine Dupont scores a try during the 2024 HSBC Canada Sevens rugby tournament match between France and USA at BC Place Stadium in Vancouver, Canada, on February 25, 2024. (Photo by Don MacKinnon / AFP) (Photo by DON MACKINNON/AFP via Getty Images)

Antoine Dupont was unable to inspire France to sevens silverware as New Zealand edged them out in the semi-finals of the HSBC SVNS event in Vancouver.

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France’s regular 15-a-side captain, whose late try fired his country into the last four on Saturday in a quarter-final win over Ireland, has opted to skip the Guinness Six Nations in order to focus on playing sevens ahead of this summer’s Olympics in Paris.

France missed scrum-half Dupont’s skills earlier on Sunday as Les Bleus were stunned in a 13-13 Six Nations draw with unfancied Italy in Lille.

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France 7s captain Paulin Riva on Antoine Dupont joining the 7s squad

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France 7s captain Paulin Riva on Antoine Dupont joining the 7s squad

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But the 2021 men’s world player of the year, playing in his first sevens tournament, had to settle for a third-place play-off in Canada as New Zealand beat France 28-26 in a high quality sevens contest.

New Zealand took control of the semi-final after early tries from Cody Vai and Akuila Rokolisoa gave them a 14-5 interval advantage.

Jordan Sepho’s try helped France cut the lead to 14-12, but New Zealand stretched away again before consolation scores from Rayan Rebbadj and Joseph Jefferson Lee.

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2 Comments
K
Kirk 250 days ago

Dupont is magic. Watched his games in Vancouver and interesting to see how his 15s strength is an asset in 7s- where the players are super fit and super powerful but perhaps more wiry/lightweight that the behemoths Dupont plays against more regularly. His mad fresh skills, speed and disporportionate physicality for his size means he’s going to do just fine in 7s!

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