Antoine Dupont pleased with Sevens debut in Canada

France's regular 15-a-side captain, whose late try fired his country into the last four on Saturday in a quarter-final win over Ireland, has opted to skip the Six Nations in order to focus on playing sevens ahead of this summer's Olympics in Paris.

France missed scrum-half Dupont's skills earlier on Sunday as Les Bleus were stunned in a 13-13 Six Nations draw with unfancied Italy in Lille.

But the 2021 men's world player of the year, playing in his first sevens tournament, had to settle for a third-place play-off in Canada as New Zealand beat France 28-26 in a high-quality sevens contest.

New Zealand took control of the semi-final after early tries from Cody Vai and Akuila Rokolisoa gave them a 14-5 interval advantage. Jordan Sepho's try helped France cut the lead to 14-12, but New Zealand stretched away again before consolation scores from Rayan Rebbadj and Joseph Jefferson Lee.

France then secured the bronze medal with a comfortable 42-12 win over the USA, where Dupont scored their final try. 

"Yes, even if it's not the medal we had hoped for," said Dupont when French publication Midi Olympique asked if he was pleased with the result.

"This semi-final will leave some regrets because we gave the New Zealanders easy tries. And we see that when we hold the ball, we put all the teams in difficulty. Our room for improvement is on this point. We need to be more consistent. It is positive for the future that we concluded the tournament with a success. It's a super fun game, there are spaces everywhere.

"It's getting up with aches and telling yourself that we're playing again. The more aches there are, the more important the matches. It's the paradox of this sport but we get used to it. You must therefore do everything possible to recover well.

"There are wonderful athletes, great rugby players who are not known to the general public. In any case, if you don't feel like rugby, it's complicated in this discipline. I appreciated all that and the good humor of the group. There is a great state of mind. We feel that the guys enjoy spending time together."

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