Antoine Dupont delivers ‘I was there’ moment as France storm to Olympic rugby sevens gold

France 28 Fiji 7

Antoine Dupont was made for this moment. Already a global superstar and widely acclaimed as the greatest rugby player of his generation, France’s poster boy of these Games is now an Olympic champion, scoring two tries that turbocharged the hosts to the first gold of these Olympics. You will be hard pushed to find a more magical fairytale in the French capital over the next fortnight, or such a story of redemption.

In the very stadium where 285 days ago, this giant of the sport suffered crushing heartache in France’s quarter-final defeat to South Africa at their own Rugby World Cup, Dupont’s high-profile decision to switch to sevens was vindicated in the most glittering fashion.

For weeks – months – he has carried the weight of a nation’s expectations on his stocky shoulders. His face has been plastered around Paris’ boulevards. On a damp evening in Paris, he delivered, as the hosts’ 28-7 victory over Fiji sent a sold-out Stade de France into complete delirium. For Parisians, this will go down as an ‘I was there’ moment.

It was always going to take someone special to dethrone two-time Olympic champions Fiji. After Jefferson-Lee Joseph cancelled out Joseva Talacolo’s early score, up stepped this supreme scrumhalf, blitzing down the wing to set up Aaron Grandidier to fly over before crossing twice in the dying moments. Dupont’s first score was the result of a quickly taken penalty, his second sealed his destiny as an Olympic champion. “I don’t have enough English words to describe this,” he said afterwards. “It’s sensational. It’s unbelievable.”

“When I came the first day I wondered what I was doing here, if I made the choice to not play the Six Nations was the good one,” Dupont added. “But the