Antoine Dupont won the trophy for best Rugby sevens player of the year at the World Rugby Awards 2024 on Sunday in Monaco, consecrating his success at the Olympic Games with the France team.
The Toulouse player, who discovered the discipline this year with a view to the Games, was decisive during the Olympic tournament, notably scoring two tries in the final against Fiji and becoming the first male player to win the title of best player in XV and XV. VII.
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Four months after leading the Blues of rugby sevens to the top of the Olympus, Antoine Dupont was named best septist of the year on Sunday, during the World Rugby Awards 2024 which also honored the South African Pieter-Steph du Toit , best player at XV.
The Toulouse native, who discovered the discipline this year with a view to the Games, was decisive during the Olympic tournament, notably scoring two tries in the final won against Fiji.
By beating his teammate with the Blues Aaron Grandidier-Nkanang and the Irishman Terry Kennedy, he became the first male player to win the title of best player at XV and VII, having already been distinguished in 2021 for his performances with the Stade Toulouse and the XV of France.
Antoine Dupont certainly didn’t play a lot of sevens, barely four tournaments out of nine over the entire year including the Games, but those who doubted his adaptation quickly backed away.
After a first tournament where he was content with the end of matches in Vancouver in February, he continued by showing great abilities in Los Angeles, where the French men’s team won their first tournament on the world circuit since 2005.
His speed, his intelligence of the game and his devastating rackets then lit up the Madrid tournament, where the Blues won the world circuit after a decisive 60-meter try from Dupont in the quarter-final.
Olympic gold
Like all of his partners, he first seemed taken by the challenge at the start of the Olympic tournament, at the Stade de France. Often placed on the bench at the start of the match, Dupont helped swing the matches to the French side.
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This was particularly the case during the final. For his first ball, on the kick-off, he bypassed the entire defense, outpacing even the supersonic Fijians, before giving it to Aaron Grandidier at the last moment to avoid the return of a defender.
The Olympic tournament and the first French gold medal at the Paris Olympics, the day after the opening ceremony, further increased Dupont’s popularity in France and around the world and chased away the disillusionment of the 2023 World Cup.
His stints at VII, with a schedule arranged thanks to an agreement between the federation and his club Toulouse, did not prevent him from winning a Championship-European Cup double, where Dupont shone each time he played.
On the other hand, he did not participate in the 2024 Six Nations Tournament, where his absence was felt in the game produced, even if the Blues finished second behind Ireland.
Back with the XV of France for the November tour Dupont did not score a try, but his simple presence mechanically offered more space to his partners and contributed to the Blues’ three successes.
du Toit, king of the 15th century
His non-participation in the Tournament de facto prevents him from claiming the title of best player in XV, which is fixed only on international matches. South African flanker Pieter-Steph du Toit, a major player in the Boks’ success in the Rugby Championship, won the trophy for the second time after 2019. France won three other distinctions: that of best coach for Jérôme Daret, the coach of the Blues at the Paris Games, as well as the tests of the year at XV marked by winger Marine Ménager and scrum half Nolann Le Garrec. England full-back Ellie Kildunne was crowned best player in XV thanks to her 14 tries in 10 matches, underlining the overwhelming domination of the “Red Roses” in world rugby one year before the World Cup on home soil. New Zealand third row Wallace Sititi and Irish Erin King were crowned revelation of the year.
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Except for the two trials of the year, which were awarded by a public vote, the winners were chosen by panels of between six and eleven people, made up of former players, coaches or journalists.
