After the XV World Cup (from September 8 to October 28), will Antoine Dupont play in the Olympic Games with the France team at 7 in the summer of 2024? The question seems to be advancing rapidly. The Toulouse scrum-half has never hidden that he would dream of competing in the Paris Olympics. Just after the 22nd coronation of Toulouse, Saturday against Stade Rochelais, the new president of the French Rugby Federation has positioned himself. “I am totally for it,” said Florian Grill on RTL. We are lucky to have the Olympic and Paralympic Games in Paris in 2024. If Antoine Dupont offers us his person to be our standard bearer and our torch, that would be great.
The question now is whether his club hears it with the same ear. Again, Florian Grill assures that he has received the approval of the president of the Rouge et Noir: “Didier Lacroix is for it. We talked about it and he is OK on the subject. The subject is however thorny for the XV of France and the Stade Toulousain, since the best player in the world in 2021 could – it is under study – miss the Six Nations Tournament 2024 with the XV of France then the possible final phases of his club in order to prepare for the Olympic deadline by participating in training courses and Sevens events.
His integration into the France team at 7 is, moreover, not without raising a debate. Sportingly, will he be ready and decisive at 7? There are many successful examples of passages between the 7th and the 15th, with in particular Virimi Vakatawa, Gabin Villière or Jean-Pascal Barraque in the recent past. Sonny Bill Williams, the former All Black who revolutionized rugby with his passes after contact (offloads in English), had also embarked on an Olympic adventure thanks to rugby 7. But, at the Rio Olympics in 2016, he had had to withdraw from the Olympic tournament due to a partial rupture of the Achilles tendon during the first match against Japan.
The Stade Toulousain scrum-half readily admits that he will have to discover and adapt to a sport that does not require the same requirements. “Playing at 7 is more complicated because it is not my sport, so we will have to find arrangements between the Federations and the club so that I can have time slots to train and also see my level. It remains different efforts and a different rugby”, he had recognized in the program “En aparté”.
The integration of Antoine Dupont in the septist squad for the Paris Games nevertheless raises some reservations. Like that emitted by the former international Olivier Magne in the columns of South West: “There is a team of France at 7 which is efficient. It will be difficult to tell players who have been fighting very hard for several seasons that Dupont will be integrated to their detriment. I don’t think that is possible. It’s commendable, but it’s not as simple as that…”
