On July 27, 2024, a year ago today, the French rugby team at 7 entered history. To launch historic and memorable Olympic Games on Parisian soil, the teammates of a reinvented Antoine Dupont have sublimated, delivering the most good performance of their careers. A uppercase performance that allowed them to register their name to the French sport pantheon by becoming Olympic champions … just that! Back on a historical day, rich in emotions, that no one is ready to forget.
Paris, July 27, 2024. In the aftermath of a unique and grand opening ceremony, the French rugby team at 7 marked the start of a competition that no one is ready to forget. From the first gleams of the day, a singular atmosphere hovers in the air: a soft but tenacious tension, like a current thrill along the spine of an entire country. In the silent corridors of a stadium in France in boiling, the players are preparing to switch to another dimension: that where history reaches you out. Sacred Olympic champions at the end of a memorable day, the septists turned into a hero, for a moment suspended in eternity.
3.30 p.m.: The trap match
It’s been an hour that the Stade de France is heating up, rumbles, awaits its blues … The stands vibrate. The kick-off of the first semi-final is then given. Opposite, a valiant and formidable South African team, determined to spoil the party. At ease in tracking play conditions, the blitzboks impose their rhythm. The minutes swarmed like burning sand and after a first period of seven minutes sterile, it is the South Africans who strike the first. The stake seems to freeze the French, as if the match escaped them and, with him, the dream. Each race resonates like a thunderbolt, each tackle is a cry returned. Then, suddenly, a thinning. A clear, sharp race: Varian Pasquet takes speed of the South African defense and sounds the revolt by offering a test to Rayan Rebbadj between the posts. A few minutes later, Rebbadj went there with his double before Jordan Sepho’s final blow to seal the match. France won 19 to 5. The looks light up, the jaws loosen and we start to believe it. The medal is assured, more than a match to get the most beautiful …
7:30 p.m.: “A family final”
The sun descends slowly to Paris, bathed the stadium of France with a golden light. The stands are packed, the tension is electric, almost palpable. The whole world looks. Opposite: Fijiens. The same ones who had left no chance to the French team in the group stage (19-12), brothers of the heart of these French people with whom they shared part of their preparation, double Olympic champions in reigning and favorite logics … untouchable, it is believed. “A family final”, will declare Paulin Riva after the event.
7:45 p.m.: Kick -off. And everything accelerates. Barely a minute of play, Joseva Talacolo pierces the French line: 7 to 0 for the Fiji. The slap is immediate. France flicker, collects … but does not give in. Just before the break, Andy Timo appears, pierces the defense, fixes two opponents, transmits to Jefferson-Lee Joseph who marks between the poles. The Blues pick up the score: 7-7. At halftime, the two teams return to the locker room, back to back. The stadium retains its breath. And then, Antoine Dupont enters the scene. It is almost 8 p.m., fate has just knocked its laces. Beginning of the second period, the first ball taking and after a monumental aerial work by Aaron Grandidier-Nkanang, Dupont fixed, overflows, accelerates … and finds at the end of the same Grandidier, still him, who only has to dive into the in-goal: test, 14 to 7. The Stade de France explodes. Five breathless minutes flow and out of breath, Antoine Dupont plays a penalty quickly at five meters, forces the passage: try again. It’s now 21 to 7 for France. This time, we can believe it, they are doing it. After months of debate, doubts, only a few seconds left before the feat. And as a symbol, to initial this perfect copy, a last collective test, all together. On a final touch, this group of friends, never satisfied, chooses the penetrating group … almost never seen at 7. As if this panache, specific to an extraordinary band, came to seal the fate of this team.
When the referee whistles the end, the Blues collapse on the lawn. Some laugh, others cry, all sing. The public cannot come back to it and France launches these Olymlpical Games by a resounding feat. The gold in gold, on the roof of Olympus, united forever.
And then, this scene that went around the world: the French players, still sweating, singing the first Marseillaise of these games, then communicating in the center of the lawn in a house dance full of joy and pride. This July 27, 2024, France did not simply win a medal: it offered a moment of eternity. For the first time, the Blues are Olympic champions of rugby at 7 and French rugby, often shaken, has just discovered wings. In the spirits, until the end of the night, and until the end of our lives, will remain engraved the magic image of this group which will have launched an unprecedented and incomparable fervor in this timeless competition. Men proud to have made their nation shine. That day, France has not only played … It touched the sky!
