Antoine Dupont caps stunning arrival in sevens as France win first tournament in 19 years in Los Angeles
- After finishing third on his debut last weekend, France’s 15-a-side scrum-half and captain helps his country to LA title
- But his return to club rugby appears to rule him out of next month’s Hong Kong Sevens
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France beat injury-hit Great Britain 21-0 to capture the Los Angeles Sevens title, completing a stellar introduction to rugby’s shortened version for Antoine Dupont.
The crown capped a triumphant first few weeks in the format for former World Rugby Player of the Year Dupont, France’s 15-a-side captain and scrum-half.
Dupont switched to sevens in a bid to compete for Paris Olympic gold later this year. He debuted last weekend in Vancouver, helping France to finish third, and has now been part of the squad’s first World Rugby SVNS Series title of the season and their first since the 2005 season.
He will next return to club rugby with Toulouse and reportedly will rejoin France’s sevens squad for the series finals in May, which would rule him out of next month’s Cathay/HSBC Hong Kong Sevens.
Dupont’s presence has energised the France team, which have moved up from seventh to fourth place on the overall standings.
In the final late on Sunday, US time, Antoine Zeghdar’s try and a conversion by Stephen Parez-Edo Martin in the seventh minute took France ahead 7-0 at half-time.
Martin converted his own try in the ninth minute for a 14-0 French lead and Theo Fornier added a try in the 13th minute and converted it to seal France’s championship.
“I’m very proud for the team, for the boys,” France captain Paulin Riva said. “It was very difficult all weekend but we worked hard every time, everywhere and we are very happy.
“I think this is the new standard for France and we will take this memory into the next tournament.”
In the semi-finals, France had held off Ireland 26-24 while Great Britain edged Spain 10-7.
France advanced when Ireland’s Billy Dardis missed the conversion after Terry Kennedy scored his second try in the 15th minute.
Rayan Rebbadj delivered a try and three conversions for France, which also had tries from Zeghdar, Dupont and Paulin Riva.
The French had seized a 26-12 lead before Zac Ward and Kennedy struck in the final minutes to lift the Irish within reach.
In the other semi-final, Robbie Fergusson’s try in the fifth minute gave Great Britain a 5-0 half-time lead and Alex Davis added another in the ninth minute that made the difference.
Tobias Sainz-Trapaga scored a try for the Spaniards in the 12th minute and Juan Ramos added a conversion but it was too little and too late.
In the women’s final, Michaela Blyde scored three tries to power second-placed New Zealand over series leaders Australia 29-14.
In the semi-finals, the Aussies ousted the United States 26-19 and the Kiwis eliminated Canada 31-12.
Australia retain a four-point lead over New Zealand in the standings after five of eight rounds.
Additional reporting by Reuters
