There haven’t been many rugby sevens matches fairly just like the quarter-final between France and Argentina, haven’t, in all honesty, been many Olympic moments fairly prefer it both. France received it 26-14, their final, match-winning, attempt, a spectacular solo tap-and-go scored by (who else however?) Antoine Dupont. However it was not the motion that made the event, good because it was, however the ambiance round it. There have been 80,000 French followers within the Stade de France, and so they made a racket that carried out of the bottom and proper across the metropolis.
The poor outdated Argentinians have been on the hook for the racist chants their soccer staff aimed on the French gamers in the course of the latest Copa América, and so they have been booed and hooted and jeered each time they touched the ball. Relations between the 2 international locations have change into so strained that Argentina’s president, Javier Milei, has organized to fulfill Emmanuel Macron in Paris this weekend in an effort to reduce the tensions between them.
Which was nearly the very last thing the French gamers, and everybody else within the Stade, had in thoughts on Thursday evening. As a substitute, they belted out La Marseillaise as their staff ripped right into a 21-0 lead. Andy Timo scored their first, the lightning fast Aaron Grandidier Nkanang their second and third. Nice Britain’s males could not have certified for the competitors, however there’s nonetheless somewhat English affect right here, Grandidier Nkanang was born and raised in London, and even performed for the English Counties U18 staff earlier than he moved to France.
Argentina pulled one again early within the second half, however the recreation actually lurched their method when France’s Jordan Sepho was proven a yellow card. Argentina scored a second, and abruptly there was just one attempt in it. However Dupont was on now, and he did an skilled job of shepherding his staff downfield earlier than ending the job off together with his last attempt after the buzzer. So France’s live-action experiment within the nice man principle of historical past goes to roll on into the semi-finals on Saturday, the place they’ll play South Africa.
Dupont selected to change to sevens all by himself, only for the hell of it and the prospect of a medal. It has been a two-year venture, he needed to skip this yr’s Six Nations, and balanced match his commitments with the sevens staff round Toulouse’s run to a league and cup double. In between, he helped France (who didn’t even handle to qualify for the Tokyo Olympics) to win a event on the sevens circuit for the primary time since 2005. It has helped that he is aware of a few of the gamers from method again, the captain, Paulin Riva, was at Auch with him, and his older brother Clement, again within the early 2010s.
If Dupont’s France are going to win this factor, they must discover a well beyond Fiji, who haven’t been overwhelmed in Olympic competitors but. Throughout 2016, 2020, and the primary two days of competitors in 2024, their report is performed 16, received 16. In all that point, nobody has ever even obtained inside 5 factors of them till Eire, who have been subsequent on, misplaced their very own quarter-final in opposition to them 19-15. They have been 15-7 up at one level, however Fiji are as irresistible because the tide, you could as properly by attempting to sort out the waves when they’re in circulate, and so they scored twice in a minute to win it.
Fiji had a tough couple of years within the run-up to the Video games, underneath the path of the outdated England participant and coach Ben Gollings. They sacked him in March, and changed him with Osea Kolinisau, who was their captain once they received the gold in Rio. Kolinisau’s first transfer was to deliver again their legendary 35-year-old Jerry Tuwai, who has already received two gold medals, however who had been dropped by Gollings due to considerations about his health. Kolinisau says he has obtained them enjoying the “Fijian method: excessive tempo and excessive threat”. France performed them within the last match of the group stage, and misplaced by seven.
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Fiji meet Australia, 18-0 victors over USA whereas France might want to get previous South Africa, who their followers additionally booed. The Blitzboks beat New Zealand 14-7 of their quarter-final, thanks, largely, to the irresistible type of their skipper Selvyn Davids, who scored one attempt by breaking two tackles and made the opposite with by operating the size of the sphere.
Rugby sevens has at all times appeared a barely odd match on the Olympics. At Rio, it was held in a ramshackle little floor constructed out of scaffolding in a paddock outdoors town, in Tokyo it was, like every thing else, performed in an empty stadium, which wasn’t a lot enjoyable for anybody. However it has discovered its place right here in Paris.
