Hours after his usual acolytes had drawn 13-13 with Italy in Lille, Antoine Dupont was unable to inspire France to reach the final of the Vancouver sevens.
Despite having lit up the second day with the winning try in the quarter-finals, Dupont’s graduated entry to sevens continued on Sunday and he was a replacement in the 28-26 semi-final defeat by New Zealand. He came on with five minutes to go, when his team were nine points down, and a comeback was beyond Les Bleus, though it was Dupont’s strip in a tackle that enabled Rayan Rebbadj to score the first of two consolation tries.
Jérôme Daret, the France head coach, resisted any temptation to bet everything on the debutant, even after his performances on Saturday. In the third minute of time added on, the scores level at 5-5, Dupont had scored the winner against Ireland in the last eight. Of course he did.
That was Dupont’s second try. Similar to his first, shorter in distance and fewer men beaten, yet more vital. Ireland were understaffed as Niall Comerford had been sent to the sin-bin — France had two yellow cards of their own earlier in the match — and Dupont, feeding the ball into the scrum and getting it back, waited for the Ireland forwards and scrum half to head to the open side, then sniped blind and over in the corner from about 12 metres out.
Against Australia, his try came after a feed into a three-man scrum and a break to the left, an opportunity but no more. He stood up Matthew Gonzalez, got on to the Australian’s outside and handed him off for good measure, moving the ball into both hands for a half-dummy and then sprinting away for his first try in the SVNS (vowels are for unwanted demographics, apparently) international rugby sevens series. This, in the first minute of the second half of his third match, was the moment the hype around Dupont merged with reality. He had been an efficient cog until then. Now he was “Super Toto” once more. Against Ireland, in his fourth match, even more so.
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The world’s best rugby player is as likely as anyone to make good on a transition to the shorter form of the game. As a scrum half with a preternatural sense of where play will go, and the engine to get him there, allied to speed and the strength of a bull, Dupont can do it all over 80 minutes with 14 team-mates, so why not over 14 minutes with six?
The international sevens circuit is a different world to that which he already rules. Uini Atonio, Romain Ntamack and Jonathan Danty are not his kinsmen now; Varian Pasquet, Aaron Grandidier and Jordan Sepho have welcomed the king to their realm. After his first prolonged spell on the pitch — all 11 minutes of it against Australia — Dupont admitted his legs hurt a bit more than usual from the HIIT workout to which he is becoming accustomed.
Of course, the marketing had been extensive and Dupont’s first day was one for acclimatisation as a supporting cast member. He did not start the first two pool matches — wins against United States (24-12) and Samoa (40-7) — coming on for six minutes across the two victories. When he first entered the field, his face having been on the Vancouver jumbotron in the stadium throughout sedentary periods on the sidelines, the applause was loud, the announcement personal, and the prophecy true.
While France’s XVs side stutter through their post-World Cup hangover in the Six Nations, why is Dupont in North America? He has described the Olympics as the Holy Grail of sport. Dupont was unable to lead France to World Cup immortality in Paris, but now he is set to have a crack at a second global event on home soil in as many years. To wrest a gold medal from Fiji’s silky hands. Daret, the head coach of the France sevens side, acknowledged that his presence has brought added spotlight to the discipline.
Wearing the No 25 jersey — his number of XV caps, 52, in reverse — and black tights underneath his shorts and socks, Dupont operates in the half backs, as he does in the longer form. Among his new jobs is lineout throwing, required rarely.
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He won a jackal turnover at a ruck and threw a sumptuous lofted pass to put Grandidier on the outside and set up the first try for Rebbadj in the 31-5 pool-stage victory against Australia. Just after the interval came his solo score. Then he helped to counter-ruck and win a turnover that led to an end-to-end try for Esteban Capilla, after Pasquet’s run down the wing. Off he went for a rest, victory secured, setting up the quarter-final against Ireland. He started that as a substitute, and ended it as the match-winner. The reward was a semi-final against New Zealand. Whether in SVNS or XVs, Dupont’s foes look the same.
Dupont’s replacement cameos had been just that. Against the US, he won the ruck that led to a try for Capilla, threw a flat pass that was harshly adjudged forward, and covered as sweeper in defence when Perry Baker, 37, the type of stalwart with whom he will become familiar over the next six months, broke down the flank.
Dupont said it had been a lesson in the fundamentals of sevens: there appear to be holes everywhere, but they quickly close, and even a player of his quality cannot simply go for them every time. “Respect the principles of play but [do] not lose sight of initiative,” he said.
France had failed to finish in the top two of their pool at the first two sevens events of the season. In Perth, they made it to the quarter-finals and lost to the US. It is not simply because of Dupont that they have improved again. But he was never going to make them worse.
