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Antoine Dupont magic not enough in his first sevens tournament
By PA
Antoine Dupont was unable to inspire France to sevens silverware as New Zealand edged them out in the semi-finals of the HSBC SVNS event in Vancouver.
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France’s regular 15-a-side captain, whose late try fired his country into the last four on Saturday in a quarter-final win over Ireland, has opted to skip the Guinness Six Nations in order to focus on playing sevens ahead of this summer’s Olympics in Paris.
France missed scrum-half Dupont’s skills earlier on Sunday as Les Bleus were stunned in a 13-13 Six Nations draw with unfancied Italy in Lille.
But the 2021 men’s world player of the year, playing in his first sevens tournament, had to settle for a third-place play-off in Canada as New Zealand beat France 28-26 in a high quality sevens contest.
New Zealand took control of the semi-final after early tries from Cody Vai and Akuila Rokolisoa gave them a 14-5 interval advantage.
Jordan Sepho’s try helped France cut the lead to 14-12, but New Zealand stretched away again before consolation scores from Rayan Rebbadj and Joseph Jefferson Lee.
Dupont is magic. Watched his games in Vancouver and interesting to see how his 15s strength is an asset in 7s- where the players are super fit and super powerful but perhaps more wiry/lightweight that the behemoths Dupont plays against more regularly. His mad fresh skills, speed and disporportionate physicality for his size means he’s going to do just fine in 7s!