Antoine Dupont gave a quick however significant evaluation of France’s opening recreation 12-all draw with the USA on Wednesday, saying they should “embrace this stress” of taking part in in entrance of 80,000 followers at Stade de France.
Dupont, 27, is the most important title in rugby sevens on the Paris Olympic Video games after making the change over from the 15-a-side recreation. The Frenchman was sensible throughout his first season on the SVNS Sequence, taking house the Rookie of the Yr honour in Madrid.
France hadn’t received a Cup Closing on the Sequence till Dupont joined the crew. Les Bleus Sevens completed third in Dupont’s debut occasion in Vancouver earlier than taking out the title in Los Angeles one week later, and later the general Sequence crown within the Spanish capital.
With followers and gamers genuinely believing that France can take out gold or a minimum of end on the rostrum at their house Olympic Video games, there’s lots of stress that comes with that. First up, that hype appeared to get to the sevens aspect towards the USA.
In entrance of a World Cup-like crowd, Jordan Sepho opened the scoring within the fourth minute earlier than the USA hit again by means of Lucas Lacamp. Rayan Rebbadj gave France the lead once more in the course of the second half however the People had a solution for that, too.
12-all is how the scoreboard learn at full-time. It wasn’t a convincing begin by France who even have Uruguay and Fiji to deal with in Pool C.
“It was an enormous ambiance. For us, it’s not frequent for us to play in this type of stadium,” Dupont mentioned on the Olympics broadcast, as seen on Stan Sport in Australia.
“We have now to embrace this ambiance, to embrace this stress to have a greater recreation.”
Dupont opened his try-scoring account on the Olympics in France’s 19-12 win over Uruguay of their second and last recreation on day one.
25-year-old Antoine Zeghdar ran down the left touchline to open the scoring early on, and whereas Uruguay managed to strike again, it’s typically inevitable on the rugby area that Dupont has a say.
The previous World Rugby 15s Participant of the Yr confirmed some brute energy and had simply sufficient tempo to attain behind the posts. As you’ll be able to think about, Stade de France erupted with a deafening cheer that possibly hasn’t been heard in sevens earlier than.
France went on to win, however Dupont’s feedback after that USA match stay true: “It’s at all times lots of emotion once we play there with our supporters.
“It’s necessary to take care of that and to be higher even with the stress.”
France tackle Fiji in one of many early video games on day two. The Fijians have regarded considerably higher than what they did on the SVNS Sequence this season after recording huge wins over Uruguay and the USA.
Fiji’s two wins had been truly the second and third greatest successful margins out of any crew on the opening day, so Antoine Dupont and co may have their work lower out of them as they give the impression of being to keep away from probably lacking the quarter-finals.
