He was entitled to the honors of the giant screen of a very empty Civitas Metropolitano for this first day of the tournament two hours before the Blues entered the fray, during a Kenya-Samoa. Antoine Dupont was then in the stands, and did not move at the start of the evening during the large victory of the French rugby sevens team against Australia (38-5). A very large success, impressive mastery and defensive involvement for the Tricolores’ first steps in the competition on Friday.
“If our opponents see that we can put in a performance like that without him, they will ask themselves questions when he arrives in the twelve,” smiles his partner Aaron Grandidier. No worries, we will see, barring any incident, the French rugby star running around on the Spanish pitch this weekend. But less than a week after a grueling European final won with Stade Toulouse, the staff saw fit to save it during this launch day with only one match on the program. This week, he had already been excused from part of the collective sessions.
The scrum half took part, a few minutes before the match against the Australians, in the warm-up on the field located outside the stadium of Antoine Griezmann’s Atlético de Madrid footballers. He then wisely took his place, in the shade, on one of the seats at ground level. Watching, notably in the company of the manager in charge of logistics, former player Julien Candelon, the very solid performance of his teammates punctuated by six tries.
Antoine Dupont experienced the meeting between France and Australia in the stands. LP/Icon Sport/Hugo Pfeiffer 2024 Icon Sport
“We played a very complete match, both in defense and attack,” judge Aaron Grandidier. An almost perfect start in this group, where the first two will compete in the semi-finals on Sunday. On the program for Jérôme Daret’s men on Saturday: the team at the top of the world hierarchy, Argentina (5:51 p.m.), big winner on Friday over Great Britain (31-5), final opponent of the French in the evening (8:55 p.m. ). With, a priori, the first steps in the Blues jersey of “Toto” Dupont since the coronation of the Los Angeles tournament at the beginning of March.
