Not content material with any regular coronation, Antoine Dupont ascended the Olympic throne and carried a nation with him.
Typically, within the clutch moments of a contest, greatness publicizes itself, immaculate and irresistible and blindingly stark. An amazing participant merely seizes a match and wrenches it past the management of their opponent.
The Olympic remaining was stage at half-time, dangling within the steadiness. Fiji popped the cacophonous Stade de France with the primary attempt, earlier than Jefferson Lee Joseph introduced the din hovering again up with a leveller.
Then, he emerged. All week, we had watched the Stade salivating over Dupont, virtually begging Jerome Daret, the wily French coach, to unleash him from the bench the place he begins nearly each match for the nationwide sevens facet. We felt the jolt of electrical energy which surged by the place when Dupont stood up from the dugout, shed his bib and commenced whirling his muscular shoulders, scurrying up and down the touchline. The saviour cometh. Salvation is nigh.
Daret is cautious to handle Dupont. He seldom performs greater than the ultimate 5 minutes, launched for the magnificent Stephen Parez, whose affect burned shiny on every of the three mesmerising matchdays. That’s the factor about greatness; it wants no time to mattress in, nor dry runs to calculate; it strikes in shiny flashes, pure and untouchable.
When Dupont finds the ball, the Stade goes thermonuclear. When he scorched down the left flank, burning the long-lasting Jerry Tuwai, the frenzied cry may very well be heard from outer area. Dupont flipped superbly again inside for Aaron Grandider to cross. Then he powered over, bull-like thighs dragging helpless aggressors to his will.
This was Fiji. Tuwai’s Fiji. Osea Kolinisau’s Fiji. The Fiji who crave Olympic gold above all else. The Fiji who’ve outlined and dominated rugby sevens, upon whose type the French themselves have primarily based their blueprint. The swaggering superpower which had by no means misplaced an Olympic match in seventeen makes an attempt. Fiji, turned to rubble by the French crusader.
Because the Stade heaved and shuddered and bayed for the ultimate whistle, the Fijians wore thousand-yard stares. Gold light to silver. Even their sorcerer’s arms couldn’t include Dupont.
The sport was received earlier than he scored once more on the ultimate play, France’s fourth attempt including an emphatic edge to scoreline and Dupont’s superior private position in it. That is the way it was with Dupont all week; by no means sated by the atypical.
In a tempestuous quarter-final in opposition to Argentina – viciously booed each match – France had a penalty with the clock crimson and the sport received. There was no sensible profit to taking part in any additional. Nearly each sane participant would hoof the ball off the sphere, bask within the glory and hop within the ice bathtub. Dupont wished to ram dwelling the purpose; he yearned to crank up the warmth on this broiling cauldron another time. He tapped, darted after which leapt over the road. The Stade rose to a guttural crescendo. Dupont bellowed proper again. That is our stage. That is our time – my time.
Maybe a few of this stems from the 12 months Dupont’s had, a near-twelve-month odyssey with expectation and scrutiny at each flip. He performed his first match of the season on 12th August. He performed 27 XVs matches for Toulouse and France and three sevens tournaments. His future was to captain France to the Rugby World Cup in their very own again yard. He received a mashed-in face and a quarter-final exit as an alternative. French rugby entered a bizarre state of mourning. Dupont deserted the Six Nations to chase the Olympic dream. This – the euphoria and the satisfaction and the great circumstance – was a salving of the injuries.
Dupont has now performed in 9 finals and received all of them. Prior to now two months alone, he has claimed an Investec Champions Cup crown, Prime 14 title, HSBC SVNS Grand Ultimate and Olympic gold medal. He was participant of the match in three of these showpiece video games. Greatness will not be outlined just by tangible success, however by the unremitting capability to thrive within the clutch moments.
Sports activities followers, above all else, want idols to worship. Dupont has turn out to be a totem for the French individuals. The sport has not created a transcendent star for an age however he has that energy now. He could be revered as Platini or Zidane or Mbappe. His face might be plastered throughout entrance pages the size and breadth of Europe as we speak; his tries clipped up on information channels all over the world; his standing elevated past rugby participant to sporting celebrity. An image of Dupont mocked up because the French president did large numbers on social media. The Video games can turbocharge an athlete’s rise to actual public renown. Everybody needs a bit of Dupont now, and never simply in his chosen sport. The media scrum to get inside a ten-yard radius of the phenomenon was like feeding time at a crocodile enclosure.
In contrast, there have been no journalists ready for Fiji as they paced by the written press combined zone. They’ve contributed mightily to a different immense spectacle. Kolinisau, captain within the inaugural Video games triumph of 2016, took cost solely 5 months in the past and resurrected a programme which had turn out to be mired in rancour. Tuwai was out within the chilly, reportedly deemed unfit by earlier incumbent Ben Gollings. Kolinisau labored his boys exhausting and at 35, after a 12 months within the wilderness, introduced Tuwai again in to steer the Olympic cost. Tearing up in his press convention, the captain confirmed he’s unlikely to play for Fiji once more.
“Jerry leaves footprints within the sand for different boys to comply with,” Kolinisau stated of his previous buddy. “After he’s gone, I believe we’re going to see there is just one Jerry Tuwai.”
Will Dupont be tempted again by one other tilt at gold in 4 years’ time? Who is aware of what he may add to his ten main trophies and 6 particular person honours by then. France are a effective crew with out him, after all. Parez is the proper opener to Dupont’s ruthless closing routine. Andy Timo is a powerhouse and nonetheless simply 20; Joseph a weapon and Aaron Grandidier a real showstopper.
Grandidier is a magnetic character. He was born and raised in London and to an English father and French mom. At 19, with no Premiership contract within the offing, he took a leap of religion and went to Brive. Now he’s an Olympic champion. Grandidier was outrageously good this week; a compelling advocate for sevens off the pitch and a try-scoring demon on it. He by no means missed a possibility to precise himself, by no means did not whip up the feverish crowd or let the world know precisely what he felt. Boy does rugby want extra of that.
“That is staying on my neck for so long as attainable,” he proclaimed post-match, cradling his valuable hunk of gold. “I’m gonna exit with it on, I’m gonna sleep with it on, I’m gonna journey with it on, I’m gonna go on vacation with it on, it’s staying glued to my neck. Take a look at it!”
Most sevens gamers had by no means skilled such a sense-scrambling racket. Grandidier has spoken lengthy and loud concerning the fabulous enchantment of the game and people who play it.
“I actually hope that with the quantity of individuals we’ve dropped at the stadium, that folks now begin to admire rugby sevens for what it’s. It’s such an unbelievable self-discipline. It’s typically been seen because the loopy little bit of rugby, however this can be a real, critical competitors with unbelievable athletes.”
The magic of the Stade can’t be recreated. It was a novel maelstrom of emotion and fervour with a God-like determine at its core. The problem for rugby, perennially struggling for relevance past its conventional territories, is to harness this tsunami of Olympic pleasure. How can or not it’s leveraged? What affect can it make in america, China or India?
The boys’s sevens’ place within the schedule brought about some angst, slated as two of its three days had been earlier than the Video games correct started, earlier than Celine Dion and the floats on the Seine. In actuality, it offered a highlight away from the blue-riband occasions. No jousting for eyeballs with athletics or swimming. The truth is, little or no sport and just about no medal occasions to compete with in any respect. The venerable faces from all the main UK broadsheets had been in attendance. Eurosport despatched main pundits Ugo Monye and Ben Kay to cowl the pitchside beat. The sevens had a prime-time slot free to air on NBC; a golden alternative to enchant tens of millions of latest viewers. There have been even murmurs these organising the subsequent Video games in LA and Melbourne are unexpectedly rethinking their alternative of sevens venues. ‘We’re gonna want a much bigger boat.’
Come the endgame, when the title was claimed and the Stade combusted, the solar pierced the clouds, as if Dupont himself had banished the rain which drizzled down all day throughout Paris. Edith Piaf pealed out and 69,000 sang the chorus: je ne regrette rien. Dupont can harbour no regrets about his personal path. The French gamers, who had taken dance classes as a part of their pre-Olympic coaching regime, jived and popped in a choreographed celebration on midway. The plenty hollered their rhythmic chant: qui ne saute pas n’est pas français. ‘He who doesn’t leap will not be French.’ The stands had been a sea of oscillating bedlam. It was as near-perfect a sporting event as it’s attainable to think about.
In Rio, rugby sevens was a sideshow. In covid-gripped Tokyo, no followers had been in attendance. Now, this breathtaking sport and its immense athletes have arrived, carried on the again of an unassuming French boy who can be king.