Voted best Rugby sevens player in the world, Antoine Dupont emerged from his experience with the Blues, punctuated, among other things, by a gold medal at the Paris Olympic Games this summer.
A new line on Antoine Dupont's list of achievements. Four months after leading the Blues of rugby sevens to the top of the Olympus, the Stade Toulousain player was named best septist of the year on Sunday, during the World Rugby Awards 2024 in Monte-Carlo. 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 good abilities in Los Angeles, where the French men's team won their first tournament on the world circuit since 2005 before, a few weeks later, to capsize the Stade de France by winning the gold medal at the Paris Olympic Games. An experience that the main party will never forget.
“This gold medal will unite us forever”
“It's always hard to achieve. The name of best player in the world is strong and despite that we are in a team sport. The notion of solidarity is even stronger in rugby sevens”, confided Antoine Dupont after recovering his price. “I went there with a lot of appetite, ambition, enthusiasm. It materialized very quickly with this victory in the second tournament. It was the little trigger that this team was missing to take a step forward. It took us to the Olympics. It was a human adventure, it gave me experience, even if it was a different sport. gold medal, it changes a life. As long as we haven't experienced it, especially in rugby where I experienced it late in life… When we returned to the Olympic village, it marked us for life. This gold medal will unite us for life. always.”
Aware of having won “all the competitions in which he participated”, the captain of the XV of France comes out of a year 2024 where he “had the chance to be in teams which mastered their rugby.” “I won individual and collective trophies in each competition. It was surely the year when we were the most successful with Toulouse. We didn't steal anything from anyone, we deserved both titles. With French 7s team, we have mastered our rugby, our subject,” he continued.
Heading for the XV World Cup… and Los Angeles 2028?
Back with the French XV during the Autumn Tour, the scrum-half is now focusing on the 2027 World Cup organized in Australia. With one objective: to erase the “scar” of the last edition contested in France in 2023. “It’s the title that I miss and it’s the one that will leave us with the most regrets for the moment for our generation. “I never dreamed of being the best player in the world when I was little. I dreamed of winning the Brennus Shields, the Six Nations, the World Cups,” recalls Dupont, who leaves the door open. to try the experience again with 7 for the Los Angeles Olympics in 2028.
“Between 2020 and 2024, I was able to measure everything that happened, whether personally or in international rugby. When we come out of the Olympics that we have just won, we want to fall back on those after. We'll see how I am physically and mentally in four years.”
