The announcement of the groups for the tournament allowed the French rugby sevens team to take another step towards the competition of a lifetime…
It is now just under a month before the Paris 2024 Olympic Games begin. While the excitement surrounding the year’s major event has not yet reached its peak, the Blues were nevertheless able to look a little further ahead to the competition this week, since the tournament’s group stages were announced on Sunday evening. At the Stade de France, Paulin Riva’s teammates will face the United States, Fiji and Uruguay.
“We know Fiji very well. We went to prepare there. We faced them a lot of times on the circuit. Against them, it’s always very tough, very physical matches, with a lot of intensity. So we’re preparing for that. Our team doesn’t fear anyone, but I think the Fijians will give us the most problems. The Americans bothered us at the start of the season, who we don’t know as much. was not on the circuit, could be difficult to play. You will have to be wary of that in a competition like this, the intensity will go up a notch, so you will have to be ready for anything.explained pillar Aaron Grandidier, Tuesday evening, on the banks of Lake Hossegor.
Coastal rescue to surpass yourself
This is where the French team has set down its suitcases to prepare for the competition of a lifetime. The tricolors have their habits in the Landes, the land where Jérôme Daret, the boss of the selection, comes from. “It’s a climate that is similar to the conditions we can encounter when we are on tour,” continues Grandidier. Since this year, we have been working a lot with Stéphanie Barneix (a sea rescue champion, editor’s note) on the power of the ocean, on notions of resilience, surpassing oneself and confronting our fears. With the sea right next to it, it’s perfect.”
Thus, at the start of the season, the Blues were able to indulge in surfing, before more recently trying their hand at coastal rescue. “I didn’t know this environment at all. I have a lot of respect for them. It was very, very hard. We were made to do races on the sand, swim in the ocean. We got a taste of their daily life.”
Before heading to the capital and plunging, once and for all, into Olympic madness, the Blues are taking advantage of the tranquility of the South-West to gain momentum and continue an upward curve, which began several weeks ago now. .
Since Madrid, things have changed…
Winners of the Los Angeles tournament in March, then the “World Series” in the Spanish capital at the beginning of June, the sevens players seem to be in the form of their lives. “We have gained momentum during this season. Today, we have to keep our feet on the ground, we must not think we have arrived. However, since Madrid, the way we look at ourselves has changed, thinks Grandidier. Now we really feel that we are capable of bringing out the big tournament when we need to. Then, I think we perhaps have a different status vis-à-vis the other teams. They will respect us even more, approach our matches in a different way because we will be, in quotes, the team to beat at home…”
