“Is the best”. The praise of the Pumas 7s to the great rugby star who joins the circuit

The fast-paced SVNS Series will move to North America next weekend. Cold Vancouver will be the city that will receive the best small-sided teams and the BC Place Stadium will be the stage where the eyes of much of the rugby world will be focused. The sevens debut of the extraordinary Antoine Dupont, France’s figure in 15-a-side rugby, generates a mixture of expectation and uncertainty due to his adaptation to an absolutely different discipline. “What happens externally is great, they prioritize this place, which before was a passage or formation. For the outside world, it’s great that everyone wants to come, although it means that those teams don’t have that many players,” he admitted. Santiago Gomez Coracoach of the Argentine national team, in dialogue with LA NACION.

The times are different and the difference in spaces between one discipline and another is abysmal. Seven players on a court of the same size of 15 give an idea of ​​the substantial change and adaptation that sevens requires, which has a very high pace, attacks from all sides and an error or inattention in defense is costly. Antoine Dupont is the total player. A brilliant mind to read the game in a body compressed to 1.74 m and 86 kg. Despite not being the biggest physically, he hides a physical strength and power inappropriate for a scrum-half. His explosiveness and intelligence in reading spaces, added to his unpredictability in making a pass out of nowhere, make him one of the players who break the mold in highly structured rugby.

“What is going to cost the most is the physical adaptation,” warns Marcos Moneta about DupontEMMANUEL DUNAND – AFP

“If he finds spaces inside the 15-man court, in sevens he will find them easier,” highlighted Marcos Moneta, a reference for the small game worldwide. With 20 victories in three tournaments, Rayo is the tryman so far this season and a more than authoritative voice. “What is going to cost the most is the physical adaptation. It’s an animal physically, but sevens is about stopping and starting again, stopping again and starting again. You play a game and two hours later you play another one instead of a long 80-minute game. I still think that he is going to take it easy because he is an elite athlete. For me, he is the best rugby player in the world.”

Dupont will be one of the faces of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. His presence on the team goes beyond what he can contribute on the field; He is an iconic figure in French sports that has rugby as one of the most popular sports, especially in the south. “The Olympic Games represent, quite simply, the Holy Grail of sport. We all have legendary memories of the Games that we saw on television and being able to fight for a medal is already great,” he exclaimed in a video on social networks from the French Federation. His presence at the Olympic event will serve, in some way, to appease the frustration of the World Cup, in which he suffered a cheekbone injury and did not reach 100% in the match in which they were eliminated by the Springboks, in the quarterfinals. .

Antoine Dupont suffered a serious facial injury at the World Cup, which prevented him from performing at his best.CHRISTOPHE SIMON – AFP

Santiago Mare has some similarities with Dupont: both are nicknamed Toto, they faced each other in the 2016 Youth World Cup, play a role in leading the team and also changed disciplines between 15-a-side rugby and sevens. “Without a doubt he is the best player in the world. That already gives him a range of opportunities to adapt more quickly,” Mare commented in advance of the Vancouver tournament. Trained at Regatas Bella Vista, he analyzed what the Frenchman can contribute: “He is a player with many skills, who can apply them in sevens: he is fast, explosive and makes very good decisions. He is in very good physical shape and has a great one-on-one. He joined training a couple of months ago and had his transition stage. They expected it for this moment. “He is a player who will contribute a lot emotionally, because of what Antoine Dupont means to rugby and because he is an excellent player.”.

Like Gómez Cora, Mare agrees with the value that seven takes on with this type of incorporation, even if it is with the specific objective of using it in preparation for the Olympic Games: “Figures of that world level who want to play seven give it an image much more valuable to the circuit, Michael Hooper himself [jugador de Australia], which will also be added later. It is very nice to play against them.”

France started the season below expectations and is still preparing to arrive with a chance of achieving a medal in Paris 2024. After three tournaments, Blues They are seventh and in Vancouver they will debut on Friday at 7:36 p.m. against the United States. The last final of the circuit was played last year in that same city, against Argentina, with a clear victory for the Pumas 7s by 33-21. At BC Place, with the encouragement of a national figure, they will seek to find a leap in quality.

Nicolas Casanova

Themes

Antoine DupontLos Pumas 7s

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