Antoine Dupont stars on sevens debut with last-gasp winning try for France in Vancouver
- Scrum-half’s score with the last play of the game sees off Ireland to send his side into the semi-finals of the Canada Sevens
- He has switched to sevens in the hope of playing in this year’s Olympics on home turf in Paris
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Antoine Dupont scored a try deep into injury time to send France into the semi-finals of the Canada Sevens, as he continued his debut tournament on the HSBC SVNS circuit.
Dupont settled a tense quarter-final against Ireland with the final play of the game to edge it 12-5 at Vancouver’s BC Place Stadium on Saturday, local time.
France’s regular 15-a-side captain and scrum-half has switched to sevens in the hope of playing in this year’s Olympics on home turf in Paris.
The former world player of the year, who came on as a substitute, burst down the blindside from a scrum to dot down in the corner for an opportunistic score.
It completed a gutsy comeback for France, who at one stage were reduced to five men after seeing both Joseph Jefferson Lee and Rayan Rebbadj pick up yellow cards in quick succession.
France, who set up a semi-final meeting against New Zealand on Sunday afternoon local time, had earlier dismantled Australia 31-5 in their final Pool B game, with Dupont among France’s five try-scorers.
A win over New Zealand could leave France facing a repeat of last year’s final, which they lost to Argentina.
Argentina advanced to the last four on Saturday with a hard-fought 14-12 win over Samoa in their quarter-final.
On the other side of the draw, the United States routed Great Britain 27-0 to book their semi-final berth.
New Zealand, meanwhile, held off a ferocious late fightback from Fiji to win 21-19.
The Canada Sevens is the fourth stop on World Rugby’s eight-tournament SVNS Series following tournaments in Dubai, Cape Town and Perth. The Los Angeles leg follows in March, before the Hong Kong tournament in April.
