RUGBY MATTERS – BRENDAN GALLAGHER
A weekly look at the game’s other talking points
Rather overlooked during a hectic end of season in France which saw Toulouse march off with all four national titles – Top 14, U20, U18 and U16 – was a report in the authoritative Le Parisien insisting that Antoine Dupont will be missing some or even all of the 2024 Six Nations to pursue his dream of also winning an Olympic gold medal at the Paris Olympics next July.
Now if that comes about it could be the biggest boost to the Sevens game since Jonah Lomu and Christian Cullen suddenly emerged on the scene in the mid-90s to take various tournaments and championships by storm.
Household names and world stars is what Sevens needs, a bit of stardust to set it apart and to get all rugby fans engaged again, not just the Sevens die-hards. Sevens has become a little too niche, a sport on its own played mainly by those who do not engage with the 15s game anymore. That needs to change.
The men’s and women’s Olympic tournaments will occupy six days at the Stade de France ahead of the athletics and Dupont’s presence alone would virtually guarantee 80,000 sellouts for every session of the men’s tournament.
Rugby Sevens has deliberately been placed front and centre of the entire Olympics by the French authorities and, after a low key start at Rio in 2016 and a crowd-less tournament at the delayed Covid Tokyo Olympics in 2021, this will be a huge moment for the sport. This is why various visionaries fought for decades to get rugby, in the form of Sevens, reintroduced to the Olympics.
In a departure from precedent, the pool stages of the men’s tournament will be held over two days at the Stade ahead of the Olympic opening ceremony itself, after which all concerned will come back for the knockout and medal matches the day after. The women’s event will then be run over three days following the men’s competition.
That’s a huge undertaking to turn around the stadium from the festivities and pyrotechnics of the opening ceremony but France have been determined that the rugby be a showpiece occasion and such is Dupont’s national hero status at present that it takes no stretch of the imagination to see him carrying the flag, especially if Les Bleus win the World Cup this autumn.
Dupont it should be mentioned has played almost no Sevens in his senior career but it can be taken as read that he will emerge as one of the greatest ever exponents of the shortened version of the game if he ever lasers in on the sport. Even he though will need two or three World Series tournaments with France to get up to speed and work away at his Sevens fitness and negotiations are currently underway as to when that might be.
Toulouse, who wave goodbye to him for most of February and March anyway, would obviously prefer him to join the national Sevens squad during that period which would produce the minimum disruption to their club campaigns.
Last year that time frame included legs in Sydney, Los Angeles and Vancouver and we await the confirmed schedule for the forthcoming season. That slot would obviously free up Dupont for Toulouse’s big end of season games in the Top 14 and perhaps the Champions Cup but doesn’t come without its issues. The World Series final will be held in June in Madrid and ideally France would prefer Dupont to be part of that effort after which they could roll into final training camps and behind-closed-doors competitions for the start of the Sevens on July 24.
Federation and club officials will have to sort that one out but Dupont’s willingness to chase a gold medal is an indication of just how important France regards the Olympics generally and Paris 2024 in particular. It would also open up the intriguing debate as to who really is Dupont’s number two at scrum-half for Les Bleus. Such is his dominance that there is a generation of decent nines waiting eagerly in the traps while the older Baptiste Serin, once the golden boy of French rugby himself, would also come into the equation.
It also opens up that perennial debate as to which bone fide fifteens stars would be Sevens stand outs if they had either the time or inclination to commit to Sevens for half a season and an Olympic campaign.
In France I would nominate a handful straight off. Damian Penaud who is possibly the best pure athlete in the world game, Romain Ntamack who does special “stuff ” when in the mood and Charles Ollivon who combines a 400m runner’s gas with great hands, high tariff lineout skills and a love of big hits and mixing it with the opposition. Bear in mind also that Arthur Retiere and Gabin Villiere actually made their name as Sevens players for France before concentrating on fifteens. Put them together with Dupont and four or five core members of their existing world series Sevens squad and I would put big money on them beating all-comers.
Elsewhere in Europe? Marcus Smith – who displays more than a hint of the younger Waisale Serevi with his hitch kicks, double shuffles and head back sprints – and speedster Adam Radwan immediately come to mind for England while Ben Earl would be a devastating forward.
Wales wing Louis Rees-Zammit, right, is a no brainer as are Scotland‘s Duhan van der Merwe and Darcy Graham and Italy’s Ange Capuozzo and Tommaso Menoncello – and I rather think mobile lock Federico Ruzza would be a Sevens stand out. As for Ireland, Caelen Doris and Josh van der Flier would be to the manor born and wings Mack Hansen and James Lowe very lively customers.
And the rest of the world? South Africa have a squadron of dazzling runners out wide led by Cheslin Kolbe – who was forged in the Sevens crucible – and Damian Willemse, young Australia wing Mark Nawaqanitawase would be brilliant and New Zealand could add Will Jordan along with Damian Mackenzie who looks to me like one of the best Sevens players we have never seen! It does no harm to dream.
