France target golden start at Paris Olympics 2024

Home fans will hope Antoine Dupont and France can get the Olympic Games Paris 2024 off to the perfect start when the men’s sevens tournament gets underway at Stade de France today.

Dupont has enjoyed a stunning year so far, inspiring club side Toulouse to domestic and European success while proving a catalyst to his country’s SVNS Grand Final triumph in Madrid.

France’s run to the SVNS Championship crown included a first series tournament win in 19 years, in Los Angeles, and the World Rugby Men’s 15s Player of the Year 2021 has made a seamless transition to sevens.

With the likes of Jordan Sepho, Stephen Parez-Edo Martin and captain Paulin Riva supplementing Dupont’s sublime skills, France will hope the painful memories of Men’s Rugby World Cup 2023 will be banished over the next four days.

Dupont is certainly inspired by the task facing the team at Stade de France. “For any sports fan, the Olympics are still mythical, the Holy Grail of sport,” he said.

“To be in with a chance of winning an Olympic medal is a highly motivating challenge.”

France will open their Pool C campaign against USA at 16:30 local time (GMT+2) on Wednesday before taking on Uruguay and back-to-back Olympic champions Fiji at the iconic stadium.

Les Bleus Sevens lead their 2024 head-to-heads against both USA and Uruguay but have won only one of their last five matches against Fiji, albeit that victory came in the Madrid semi-finals.

Fiji endured a disappointing SVNS campaign, finishing the regular season seventh as Ben Gollings was replaced as coach by Osea Kolinisau, who captained Fiji to Olympic gold at Rio 2016, in March.

Kolinisau recalled his former team-mate Jerry Tuwai to the squad ahead of the Grand Final in Madrid and the vastly experienced double gold medallist has been named captain for Paris.

“Even though I missed a few tournaments, I’ve stayed connected with the team, they kept encouraging me to come back and play, and I kept telling them that I’d be back,” Tuwai said.

“This will be my third Olympic Games and I truly believe that we have a fantastic squad, a strong team, and great management, the bond we share as a team gives me confidence that we can shine when it really counts.”

Fiji begin their quest for a third successive gold medal against Games debutants Uruguay at 17:00 local time on Wednesday.

“Our biggest rivals, we talked about this in training, is ourselves,” Kolinisau said. “When we get it right [mentally], people will be catching shadows on the ground.”

With only the top two guaranteed a place in the Medal quarter-finals, competition is going to be tough in Pool C.

Following a disappointing regular season, in which they made only one Cup semi-final and finished ninth overall, USA were forced to compete in the SVNS Play-off in Madrid.

The Men’s Eagles Sevens beat Uruguay 29-14 during the pool stage in Spain en route to retaining their place in the 2025 series thanks to a 40-19 victory against Samoa.

Uruguay, who won the World Rugby Sevens Challenger, recovered from their defeat to USA on day two to finish second in their pool and beat Chile to a place in SVNS 2025 with a slender 12-10 victory.

Seeded ninth and 10th respectively, USA and Uruguay will start the tournament as outsiders but with the knowledge that victory when they meet at 15:00 local time on Thursday could propel them into the knockout stages.