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Olympic gold medallists France unveiled at Champions Park in Paris

France Sevens

France fans packed out the Champions Park on Monday to welcome their victorious Olympic rugby sevens side following their win over Fiji on Saturday.

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The stands were full at Trocadéro Gardens at the foot of the Eiffel Tower as the players were unveiled with their gold medals around their necks.

The squad paraded up the walkway chanting ‘allez les bleus’ and ‘we are champions’ together with the crowd.

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An Antoine Dupont-inspired France team beat the then-reigning champions Fiji 28-7 on Saturday in front of a rapturous Stade de France, and the celebrations continued into Monday.

The win was France’s first gold medal of the Olympics this year.

Reflecting on the year France have had, which saw them win the Los Angeles SVNS and the HSBC SVNS Series Grand Final as well, head coach Jerome Daret said (translated by Google): “This is unheard of. For rugby sevens, it’s a superb showcase. The atmosphere was crazy. It’s incredible and super powerful.

“We have placed rugby sevens on the map of French rugby and on the map of Olympic sport in the best possible way.

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“We went looking for gold in Los Angeles, we found the vein and we exploited it in Madrid with the title of world champion and now that of Olympic champion. It’s awesome and powerful!

“I have difficulty understanding everything that has happened since the final whistle. The players were incredible. The staff also who created a crazy journey, relying on very high-quality consultants.

“It’s a whole package to perform and everything has been beneficial. It’s a war machine.”

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H
Hellhound 32 minutes ago
France put World Cup pain behind them with unbeaten run in November

France is starting to look like they are finally over their WC headache, although they were lucky that NZ had a very bad game. The Argies as usual is one game good, the next bad. If they can sort that out and be more consistent, they could become contenders for the WC.


NZ, Argentina (if they are more consistent), and now the Wallabies too is in an upward curve (can they be consistent?), as well as Fiji(as inconsistent as Argentina) looks like possible contenders. The Boks will be as usual a huge threat to defend their title. Things are looking up for the South, so the North should rightfully beware of the Southern Hemisphere threat.


With the French looking dangerous, the English with their close runs (mostly a mindset problem) and the Scottish seems to be the NH main contenders. The Irish is good, but not excellent anymore. They are more overbearing and with their glory days mostly gone with old players hanging on by a thread, by 2027 if they don't start adding in the younger players, they won't make it past yet another WC Quarter final. The problem is that their youngsters, while good is nothing special.


That is just 8 teams without the Irish that can become real WC contenders. Lots of hickups to be sorted still for these teams, excluding the Boks to become a threat. Make no mistake, the top Tier is much closer than people realise and the 2027 WC will be a really great WC, possibly the best contended WC ever.

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