France rugby captain Antoine Dupont will go in search of Olympic gold later this month after being named on Monday in the 12-man rugby sevens squad for the Paris games by the French Rugby Federation (FFR).
The Toulouse scrum-half, who captained France at the Rugby World Cup on home soil a year ago, missed this year’s Six Nations tournament in order to integrate himself into the national sevens squad and get accustomed to a different format of the game.
He helped France to their first leg success since 2005 as they won in Los Angeles in February and concluded the campaign with another win, in Madrid.
The rookie of the year award followed in spite of having featured in just three of the season’s eight legs.
Dupont also had a superb season with Toulouse, winning the Champions Cup in May and the Top 14 in June, his two tries in the final against Bordeaux-Begles taking him to 11 club touchdowns for the season.
France won the 15-a-side rugby at the 1900 Olympics in Paris but the sport did not feature again until 2016 in Rio when it was played as sevens.
France’s men finished seventh in that edition but failed to qualify for Tokyo where their women’s team won silver.
Led by captain Paulin Riva, the French men’s team have been drawn in Pool C alongside two-time Olympic champions Fiji, Uruguay and the United States.
France’s women’s squad includes three of the squad that featured in the 15-a-side World Cup in 2022 where they finished third – Caroline Drouin, Joanna Grisez and Chloe Jacquet.
The rugby sevens takes place at the Stade de France from July 24 to 30.
